Review Summary: The Enemy aim for stadiums and to be the voice of the people... and fail. Ruining classic songs along the way.
‘We’ll live and die in these towns’ hit the shelves at the best possible time. It was released not long before Coventry had its first big brother contestant in Bex and you couldn’t take 5 steps in the city centre without seeing an ‘I LOVE COV’ t-shirt. Almost like a summer of Cov Pride. The fact a Coventry band had achieved chart success since The Specials in the 70’s and 80’s seemed to have everyone in the city praising the ground the band walked on.
A year past. Bex faded into obscurity. ‘I LOVE COV’ t-shirts were lost in the wash and the Enemy went off to record a new album. The rest of Coventry shook their heads free of ‘Cov Pride’ and went back to moaning about it but being thankful they weren’t from Leicester. It was around this time most of The Enemy’s fans realised that Tom Clarke was in fact from Birmingham. Which made all of his love of the Sky Blue City seem oddly hollow. So The Enemy decided that instead of being the band for Coventry, they were THE band for the Working Class. Every last one of them. The result was Music for the People.
Lead single ‘No Time for Tears’ wasn’t disappointing. The chorus is up lifting and has the all important sing-a-long factor. As the recession started to set in the lyrics seemed fitting. The band proved they weren’t abandoning the people that got them where they are. They still knew what it was like to be poor, angry and drunk at the weekends. ‘We’ll live and Die...’ in past tense in a way. The sound had changed though. The band seemed to be aiming for the stadiums. If only the rest of the album wasn’t as horrifically boring, patronising and slightly familiar sounding.
‘Elephant Song’ starts the album off well. It’s different with slightly heavy, almost Sabbath-esque riff. It also proves they are true to their (2/3’s) Coventry roots. (The elephant is one of the symbols of the city).
However when we get to 51st state the whole thing takes a sinister turn. Not only have The Enemy jumped on the ‘Look everyone! We’re political ‘cos we don’t like war and stuff ‘cos it’s about oil innit’ band wagon but you are also left wondering ‘Is it just me or does that sound like Rock the Casbah?’
It’s not just you. And it’s not just that track either.
There’s ‘Nation of Checkout Girls’. Or Common People as Jarvis Cocker called it. ‘Don’t Break Tape’ is yet another Clash classic, this time London Calling. ‘Silver Spoon’ could have easily been on Sgt Peppers. If Lennon and McCartney had become incapable of telling a good song from a pathetic attempt to become the leader of some kind of revolution, and thank God they were because Silver Spoon is almost painful to listen to.
It’s as though the album is one of those cheap karaoke CD’s that have dodgy covers instead of the original songs.
The only songs worth listening to are the first 2 songs, Be Somebody, Sing When You’re In Love’ and... that’s it, really. Well, unless you like The Verve. Then ‘Keep Losing’ will be right up your street. Not long after the album’s release Tom Clarke said “If you look at a piano there are only so many note. Some songs are going to sound similar.” Yes Tom, but there are limits. Limits you clearly can’t see from the vantage point of halfway up you own colon.
