2nd District - Emotional Suicide

  by Adrian Huggins

published: 4 / 10 / 2006

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2nd District are quite simply impossible to review without cracking out a few punk-rock CD review clichés, which I am not ashamed to use and will not apologise for using. Now let's get them over and done with. You’ll often hear of a modern punk band who specialise in old skool punk, described as the bastard son of "so and so" and "what’s his face" from whichever band may seem most apt. Well, this really is the case with 2nd District. From the first 3 songs it is impossible to not think of Mancunian punk legends the Buzzcocks being bred with punk pioneers the Sex Pistols, and in particular part time generation spokesperson, part time royalist Johnny Rotten. And quite frankly there is nothing wrong with this. 2nd District are not out to change the face of music. Why should they be ? They’re just a band who play some great tunes and happen to sound incredibly like certain heavily influential bands along the way, although a few songs in you will probably like me be asking “is that a girl singing or what?” (it is a man in the form of Marc Ader). 'Too Many People' in particular sounds very, very like a 00’s version of 'Anarchy in the UK' in parts, but these fellows come crawling not out of a small bed-sit/crack house in central London, but from Bochum, Germany. They were formed out of two bands, District and the Revolvers, who respectively parted ways and joined together like some super mighty morphin punk rock band. When you think of German music you're highly likely to either think of the new wave electronica sounds of Kraftwerk or the industrial noise of Rammstien, but, regardless of if you like either of those, (big fat NO here sorry), they luckily sound nothing like either. There is nothing essentially German about 2nd District. They could be from anywhere in the world. You’d know where to find these guys in various cities across the world, and you’d certainly be able to spot them while you were there. This for me is why punk rock is one of those great music genres that doesn’t have to rely on fancy innovators to constantly update it or give it a new poster boy/girl. This could have been made in ’77, ‘82 or ’94. Like the offerings of those years, the Sex Pistols' 'Never Mind the Bollocks', the Descendants 'Milo Goes to College' and Green Day's 'Dookie', to name 3 very different yet all excellent in their own punky ways, this album has that timeless quality which punk music, when done well, really has. With title song 'Young and Disorderly' and the likes of 'Stuck on You' and 'Emotional Suicide' penned by guitarist Pascal Briggs, this album is full of anthems about young love, angst, frustration and the general beauty of being a bit of an outcast in the world and this is why the album works for me. You will have heard a few albums like this if you happen to like your hair tall and spikey, your pins safe and your music fast and loud, but when it's done with such quality you really can't help but fall in love with it.

Track Listing:-

1 19th Soldier
2 Too Many People
3 Emotional Suicide
4 High Society
5 Stuck On You
6 Young & Disorderly
7 Opportunist
8 It's Too Late
9 Promising Romance
10 I Think Of Her
11 Death Of A Working Man
12 Yeah Yeah Yeah

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