Geezers Of Nazareth - Songs On The Radio
by Anthony Dhanendran
published: 25 / 1 / 2005
Label:
Bored
Format: CD
intro
Quirky, but relaxed debut album from British duo the Geezers of Nazareth, which combines "the best bit of 80's and 90's pop" with "a splash of 90's indie sensibilities"
Yawn. Another record by a couple of studenty types just back from a gap-year trip to India ‘finding themselves’. But despite the inauspicious beginnings, this isn’t a record to be dismissed lightly. Yes, it was put together after the band – Adrian Meehan and Barnaby Reynolds – came back from a trip to Kerala in India, but fortunately for us there’s real talent to be found here. It’s a supremely relaxed record, and one that, while it wears its influences on its sleeve, is not immediately derivative of any one style or band. Opening track ‘Rush Hour Blues’ is a short meditation on tube travel. ‘Day In Day Out’ channel’s America’s Horse With No Name to create a breezy, carefree ode to, well, not a lot. Closing track ‘Sunglasses’ is a strange creature, spinning around a sample of an old Indian guy selling sunglasses on a Keralan beach. It is also an unashamedly pop album. Not in the factory-farmed music sense, but in the fact that the Geezers clearly aren’t bothered about being classed as ‘mainstream’. They have taken some of the best bits of 80's and 90's pop and added a splash of 90's indie sensibilities, as well as – yes – some Eastern spiritualism, and created something that, somehow, doesn’t seem quite right in this day and age. Several of the songs on ‘Songs on the Radio’ would have fitted in well, in fact, on bygone radio stations of the last couple of decades, and sound strange in the post-ironic 2000s, when we’re supposed to have heard all this stuff before. In a way, we have – the reference points are warmly familiar, but not cloying. This is an album that fits snugly in that mythical ‘English pop’ canon, taking in the Beatles, the Kinks, XTC, Squeeze, Blur and Pulp. It’s too early to say whether ‘Songs on the Radio’ will stand the test of time, but for now, it’s a rewarding, happy, entertaining record.
Track Listing:-
1 Rush Hour Blues2 Day In Day Out
3 Gold Rush
4 Coming Home
5 Car Song
6 6am
7 The Geegees
8 Hard Bloke
9 So What
10 Songs On The Radio
11 Sunglasses
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