Wolfhounds - Untied Kingdom...or How to Come To Terms With Your Culture

  by Tommy Gunnarsson

published: 12 / 8 / 2017

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intro

In our 'Re: View' section Tommy Gunnarsson reflects on reformed C-86 band the Wolfhounds' sixth album 'Untied Kingdom...or How to Come To Terms With Your Culture', which originally released last year on vinyl has now been reissued in a CD edition

The Wolfhounds were one of those bands that was associated with the C86 movement in the UK in the mid 80's (and they were also part of the ''NME' cassette compilation that gave the movement its name) that I never really caught on to. I'm a huge fan of McCarthy, and the two bands used to be on the same label for a few years in the late 80's, so when I started checking out the bands associated with McCarthy I had to check out the Wolfhounds too. I remember my first impression was that they were a bit too noisy for me, but that I liked a few songs, like 'The Anti-Midas Touch' and 'Happy Shopper'. After that, I more or less forgot about them, even though I found the 12" single of 'The Anti-Midas Touch' cheap when I was in holiday in Scotland in the mid 00's. So, now the Wolfhounds are back with their second album since reforming in 2005, and this time they have chosen to release the album on vinyl first, and now the CD version has come along almost a year later, which is were we are now. First of all, I'm impressed by singer David Callahan's voice, which is practically unchanged since the band's heyday thirty years ago. And the first songs are not bad at all, with 'My Legendary Childhood' being one of the best songs on the album. This is good old indiepop, or maybe I should say shambling indiepop, because the guitars are definitely noisy here, reminding me a bit of another C-86 band, the more famous The Wedding Present. I have to mention, however, 'Lucky Heather'. This is probably the most annoying song this side of Missy Elliott's 'Work It', and I really don't understand how it ended up on the album. What we have here is some kind of dub-Madchester thing, which both sounds very dated and also extremely misplaced. Maybe the band wanted to show that they can do more than just hit the guitar strings, but I think there are a lot of ways to show one's versitality and this is not one of them. There are, however, some good songs here, and if you liked them in the 80's you will probably like them now too!

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