An F-in Good Time!
Ahh, this is just what I need after all of the radio-friendly bandwagon-hoppers, it's refreshing to have something that is fashionably uncool, but still all Fonzy in its own right! Best known as the frontman for the Rockabilly masters Meteors, P.Paul Fenech glides out with his sixth solo album of twisted psychobilly.
The intro song 'Rock N Roll' shows us just how great Mr Fenech is on the guitar. He's our very own Brian Setzer from Blightly, with his rockabilly riffs, giving us a slice of our dad's record collection but with a dark and revamped twist to it. This is shown in the title track 'The F Word', which as you can imagine isn't for the easily offended, and would have Mary Whitehouse going even paler than a deceased woman can. Even from the first couple of lines - "I'm a mean little bastard, or so they say/I read it on the internet every fuckin' day" – you can see what you are getting, but it is so fucking (sorry!) catchy, that you find yourself tapping your brothel-creepers, strumming your guitar and joining in with the chorus made for crowd participation – "You use my name like you shouldn't do/ Fuck you, Fenech!/ Well fuck you too!" If this isn't cool, then I'm changing my Grease get up, throwing out my brylcream, and ditching my Harley for the bus!
'Poison Heart' is a little like Motorhead doing rockabilly, whereas 'Hangman's Daughter' is gypsy-folk jig, which sounds as though it should be sung with an Irish accent, and I have to take my hat off to Paul for not doing this. Enchanting with simplicity, it's a song which many people may be a little too worried to attempt. But Mr Fenech isn't a man to shirk taking a risk and this is perfectly crafted.
Using extra echo in the vocals, Mr Fenech's raspy tones take us on a creepy journey with the eerie slow number 'Scarecrow'. We have Paul's great guitar talents on show for his instrumental song, nicely entitled, 'Agarrando La Guitarra. Del El Diablo', whilst there is some classic psychobilly in '3 Minutes To Dead Time'.
Psychobilly, or its slower brother rockabilly has aspects of the great classic musical sounds of yesterday, mostly rock n roll, but with twists of folk and as in firstly 'Funnel Of Love' there is a slight country feel that could be a Johnny Cash tune, and then the shuck and jive that could be a real barn shindig in 'Jackson' which will have you wanting to swing your partner by the hand, spin her round whilst looking grand...! It's finger lickin' good!
The album finishes off with the quite brilliant 'Angel Song', a slow country ballad about our devilish hero expressing his love to an angel, albeit in his blasphemous and potty-mouthed way, but hey, that's love kids!
P Paul Fenech is a legend. Will this increase his fanbase? Maybe. Is it groundbreaking? Probably not. Is it entertaining? Hell yeah! So there you have it folks, enough said!