Singles

The Futureheads - I Can Do That

Dominic Valvona 25/08/2010

Rating: 3/5

Sunderland's efficacious tightly packed quartet, The Futureheads, once again man the barricades of spiky rock aplomb on this the second single from their fourth album Chaos, which was released back in April to favourable reviews.

Traversing the punkier new-wave sounds of the later 70s and once again drawing a redolent lineage with XTC, our band of blustering northern wry commentators rattle off another catchy riotous ditty.

Full of scaling roaring rapid guitar, busy ferocious hi-hats and trebly bass lines, they wax lyrical about the despair of the modern job market. 'I Can Do That' is full of observational dark resigned humour relating to the depressing drag of gaining a foot in the door and of the wonders of signing on.
The title itself echoes the infamous catchphrase mantra used by the Yosser Hughes hard man character from Alan Bleasdale's bleakly synonymous 80s drama Boys From The Black Stuff. His constant moving plight to find work in a gloomy recession ravaged Liverpool landscape led him to ever more desperate measures to find work and keep his kids.
One memorable confrontation involved Hughes pacing up and down a football pitch shadowing a poor unsuspecting grounds man whose job is to paint the white lines, barracking constantly with the immortal lines “Gizza' job, go on, I can do that!”

It now seems rather apt that in these times a character from the past still encapsulates the present difficulties for many people to secure any work.

The Futureheads' well-crafted buzzing power-punk anthem of crescendos, hi-octane powerful choruses and staccato teetering vocals doesn't exactly tread new ground, but further states their claim to being one of the UK's more prolific bands of choice in this their tenth year.

Release Date: Out Now