A musical masterpiece.
The Strawberry Blondes are stomping out with the true Punk ethos that’s not been seen on these shores, and arguably on others too, for quite some time. There are a few other bands doing similar things, like The Briggs, Time Again, Left Alone, Rancid, Goldblade, Guns On The Roof, The Knockabouts, Bankrupt and Criminal Mind, to name but a few, but The Blondes appear to live and breath it just that bit more. In fact the album is dedicated to the miners and their families as it is the 25th anniversary of the miners strike of 1984. It’s this blue-collar, struggle and fight mentality that breaths fire into each song here, even more so than the band’s fantastic 2007 debut, ‘Rise Up’.
First song, ‘Revolutionary Radio’ proves that the band have not mellowed in the slightest, and from the list of aforementioned bands, The Blondes have the ability to keep that rough-around-the-edges sound that borders on brash without ever sounding amateur or poorly produced. Lead shouter Mickie Stabbs has a voice that was born to sing Punk Rock. The rasping vocals that half sing, and half shout out musical protests and observations of wrongness fit perfectly with the loud guitar riffs, big beats and chugging basslines. This is especially evident on album title track, ‘Fight Back’ which has the gang-chant chorus of, “Fight Back!”, and again you only have to look at the album cover to see where SB’s coming from, which has a whole host of words that cause conflict and friction within each race, family, geographic residence, gender and demographic like: persecution, racism, morality, xenophobia, religion & homophobia to name but a small amount.
Lyrically this is a poetic statement that can be echoed by most working class of today, as relevant as ever. In ‘Faded Dreams’ we get the words, “The poor are slaves // The rich can kiss my arse // They don’t give a fuck about you // Revolution soon dies // Sold out for a pay rise // Sad but true…” and these are words that victims of redundancy, with pressures of paying bills can relate to as they see scandals of MP’s stealing bonuses etc on our TV’s daily. Now, within the flagship for Punk Rock, The Strawberry Blondes have always had a Ska side that they are not scared to show. This always borders on a bit of brass added to the punk as opposed to Ska guitars, or a whole change in sound like Streetlight Manifesto, Less Than Jake, Fandangle or even Rancid. Like on the band’s previous album which had the fantastic Ska influenced track, Beat Down Babylon’. Here they have the added help from Ska legend King Django, in ‘Manners And Respect’. The song starts with a few samples before the track kicks in, and would sound as comfortable on the band’s debut album, as it does on this one.
‘Culture Sucks The Life Out Of Me’ is an interesting look at how a lot of people feel, which is that history is all well and good, but when you have to live your life in today, you have to spend you money to survive, and not on something that happened years ago. This is also interesting for myself, someone that works for a conservation charity that looks to preserve buildings, countryside and coastline of the nation’s history, however the longevity of your own personal history is arguably more important than a nations, unless of course you have the money for both. ‘Hang ‘Em High’ sings about getting at all those areas that want to push things down your throat, like religion, racism and propaganda.
Next song, ‘Goodbye Inspiration’ is a rebel rouser of a track and features Joey LaRocca from The Briggs. It’s one of the more catchy tunes here, full of shouting choruses and a dedication to the late great Joe Strummer. Things then go a little Reggae in, ‘007/Rudi’ again showing an obvious influence at times to The Clash. The frustrations of life are there for all to see in the slightly more polished song of, ‘No Way Out’, which then goes to the rebel anthem of, ‘RCH Punx’ which highlights the tribe following and togetherness of gangs. At one point Mickie sings, “You’ll never take the hooligan out of me!”
It’s funny how since touring with The Briggs, the sound of the band has evolved and there are echoes of the aforementioned band throughout the album including the great song, ‘Out Of Luck’, with the chugging guitars, and shouting catchy chorus. Next song, ‘No Pasaran!’ could well be one of those songs that as the lyrics suggest, “Turn it up! This is the sound of the youth!”. Mickie’s vocals sometimes sounds like a perfect evolution of Rancid’s Time Armstrong and Lars Frederiksen’s combined voices, and let’s not forget having been picked to open up for Rancid, and cited as being an exciting band alongside, The King Blues and Sonic Boom Six by Tim Armstrong isn’t a bad accolade either!
‘Las Brigadas Internationales’ is the Street Punk with Irish twist that you would expect from the likes of Flogging Molly, Goldblade or Dropkick Murphys. Starting as a acoustic guitar and vocal sailor lullaby, it then kicks into a full throttle pirate jig. Great stuff. Things are then brought back to the quick adrenaline rush with added trumpet on, ‘Hard Times’, before last song, ‘Social Control’ finishes things up nicely.
There is no doubting here that whilst other bands have chosen to go more mainstream and commercial, The Strawberry Blondes have stuck true to their beliefs, giving us an album dripping with integrity. These aren’t three guys putting on an act. This is an album that smells of sweat and blood shed. There are frustrations spinning out, and underlining regrets that they choose to combat with being on the offensive. The message to the world and the youths of today is not lie back and wallow in depression. This isn’t a self-destructive and slightly suicidal indulgence of 90’s Grunge, no, this is Punk Rock, fuckers! And this is all about beating your chest, sticking together and fighting for what you believe in!
This album captures the feelings of millions more so than any other album in a long time. Musically it’s not much different from the brilliance of the debut album, but lyrically it could well be the soundtrack for the masses, and a musical message for the youth of today. Take a bow, sirs.