Repomen - Save Yourself/Lauren Bacall

  by John Clarkson

published: 14 / 2 / 2003

Label: Repomen
Format: CD

intro

Musically and lyrically "versatile" new EP from Sheffield's the Repomen

Sheffield's the Repomen are barely taking time to pause for breath these days. They finished last year on a high note with the release in December of their first album, 'Seventeen Again', a compilation of all their previous work to date, but now already are back with a strong new "double A-sided" single 'Save Yourself/Lauren Bacall'. The group, a four piece which consists of Pennyblackmusic writer Denzil Watson (Vocals), Ric Bower (Guitar and Piano) , Simon Tiller (Bass) and James Hughes (Drums), first formed in 1990, split up in 1992. and then reformed in 1996, and have to date self-released another four other EPs. 'Save Yourself/Lauren Bacall', their fifth EP, continues in the same vein as its last two predecessors, 'Lights Out/She's in Love' (2000) and 'Eyes on the Road/Reel Me Cuber' (2001), and consists of two electric tracks ("the A sides") and two acoustic tracks ( "the B sides"). It is a formula that, while familiar, works well, and in which the punk-pop of 'Save Yourself', the first of the electric numbers, kick starts off this latest offering most convincingly. A withering attack on American-style fundamentalist religion brought over to Britain, 'Save Yourself' throws buzzing, scatty guitar work from Ric up against sturdy, but discordant backing from the rhythm section, and has Denzil playing the twin roles of both a duped convert and a cynical preacher. "Leave the world my tape collection/I don't need it now/I just need saved"' he sings as the hapless new recruit , before switching to the role of the smarmy money-grabbing evangelist and adding a verse later "Just jot down an address where I can send the bills/I'll still plead poverty". The second song, 'Lauren Bacall', finds the band changing tempo, and is a brooding, powerful alt.country ballad which finds Denzil on surging, slow-rattling piano and Ric making his debut on main vocals. "Her black and white face on the TV is clearer to me than than you will ever be and more real" he sings of the veteran actress, capturing also in a single line the bitter hopelessness of a relationship that has long since gone rotten. While both 'Save Yourself' and 'Lauren Bacall' were recorded at Sheffield's Yellow Arch Studios, the two acoustic tracks were recorded at home. The first of these, the lighter 'A Calmer Moment', is a strummed, chirpy folk number, while the latter, the beautiful, meandering 'Dive...Diver', about the lonely existential existence of a deep-sea diver, is more experimental, and closes with a long wash of sea and bird sounds. Four new songs then which find the Repomen, already noted for their diversity, to be as versatile and as unpredictable as ever. While the majority of other bands from their generation who have similarly lasted the course have long since settled into routine, the Repomen seem incapable of playing a dull note and just keep getting better and better.

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