Albums

UNSAFE..AT ANY SPEED!

CD Album
Sympathy for the Record Industry. Cat. No: SFTRI539

1. Radio Ad
2. Kill Straker!
3. Heavy Hitter
4. General Electric Pilot
5. San Fransisco
6. Hey! Jack
7. Firebird Special
8. Aluminum
9. Four Four O
10. Quarter Mile Machine
11. The Driver

This cool first long-player was released only in the US (tho you could also pick it up at BB gigs for a while or from the official website – but even they now appear to have sold out).

A couple of previous singles feature but it’s mostly new stuff (unless you’d been watching them live around this time). Kicks off with the cool “Radio Ad” then straight into “Kill Straker!” with ace backing vocals and loud-as-hell drums; “Hey! Jack” sees our Gracious Leader coming over all tyrannical (whatever next?); “San Francisco” gets in a reference to James Coburn’s sideburns (really cool!); “Four Four O” turns the ‘rockabilly echo’ button up to eleven; “The Driver” is all stoppy / starty for a bit before it really kicks in.

Largely recorded ‘at home’, production quality is not as good as later releases but the songs hold up just fine. Sampled intros to every track begin to grate after a while but the overall effect isn’t too distracting. A pretty good debut, but things were about to get a whole lot better….

SAFE BETS:
Kill Straker! / Four Four O / The Driver

 

SPORT FURY

CD Album
Poptones. Cat. No: MC5039CD

1. Kickin’ Back
2. Bad Guys Wear Black
3. Touch My Stuff (You Can Die)
4. From The South
5. Science Fiction
6. Godspeed My Friend
7. It Might Be The Jets
8. The Fastest Time
9. Just A Little Punk
10. Cuba
11. Tom’s Dead
12. Radio Ad (Italia)

The ACE second album!

Great songs and brilliant production (courtesy of Steve Albini) throughout. Starting off with the brilliant single “Kickin’ Back” then moving through a clutch of tracks that just seem to get better and better.

“Touch My Stuff” has Jack putting on his best Kim Deal squeel; “Science Fiction” is BB doing their badass Metal thing to perfection; “Little Punk” is a re-working of the earlier single; “Tom’s Dead” is an old fave in instrumental form; “Radio Ad” comes at you in Italian (hey, don’t ask me why).

This is the album we always knew they could make – 10/10.

SPORTY LITTLE NUMBERS:
Kickin’ Back / Science Fiction / Godspeed My Friend

 

KILLER-B

CD Album
Poptones. Cat. No: MC5080CD

 

1. 
   
2. Killer Bee
3. Fire In My Eye
4. Oh Wow!
5. Strip City Heights
6. Strike!
7. Dirty Mouth
8. Easycome Easygo
9. Ah Oooh
10. The Hitt
11. Very Bad Thing
12. Deathray
13. Radio Ad (Japan)

Back for more of the same with Albini at the helm again.

In many ways this is a pretty straight follow-on from “Sport Fury” but repeated listens reveal further – shall we say, ‘subtle’ – layers to the BB aesthetic.

“Killer Bee” was a great single and the perfect opener (after some brief solo keyboard noodlings, apparently from that nice Mr Albini); “Oh Wow!” has brill backing vocals; “Dirty Mouth” just rocks throughout; as does “Easycome Easygo”; “Deathray” continues Jack’s 50s sci-fi obsession. We even get another weird little “Radio Ad” – this time in Japanese!!

Arguably fewer stand-out tracks than “Sport Fury” on first hearing but probably bears up better to repeated listening.

KILLER CUTS:
Killer Bee / Dirty Mouth / Easycome Easygo / Deathray