Singles

URBNRI - Back You Up

Mark Shields 29/05/2008

Rating: 1/5

When you first play this single and hear a one-string riff that is so over-produced it no longer sounds like a guitar, you will say "Oh dear". The problem with Urbnri is that while they seem to mean well with their music and lyrics this is really sub par late 90s dross. Sounding like a terrible Oasis clone, from the over used basic chords, the droning snarl of a vowel and the undeniably derivative 4/4 progression from verse to chorus back to verse again, these guys have served up one of the worst singles I have heard in a long time.

The chorus is nothing more than the title of the song, while the verse's lyrics are so banal ("If I were to start a fight/and it was my own fault/would you tell me to stop") you worry that there's something going on here that you must be missing. The big reveal is that there isn't. I know I'm not the target audience for this - being middleclass and from Glasgow I know the types that these guys are and in fairness to them it is an admirable effort. Admirable only for their enthusiasm, not the quality. I look froward to their LP, titled "Young Team" (you might know of a more interesting and gifted band Mogwai who released an album of the same name, however in their case it was slightly Ironic; here it's used as the Glasgow term for "Gang" without any irony at all) to only see the world end around it as it ends up number one, these guys perform at Reading and Leeds, and I crawl back into my cave.

There is an audience for this in the happy hardcore loving buckfast necking reprobates that sing Rangers and Celtic songs in pubs and clubs, unfortunately they might make this band absolutely huge. But with any luck, they might end up back inside for this travesty.

Release Date: 26/05/08