MJ Hibbett and the Validators - Regardez, Ecoutez Et Repetez

  by Tommy Gunnarsson

published: 7 / 7 / 2009

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The first time I heard of MJ Hibbett was at the beginning of this century, when he released the songs, 'Clubbing in the Week' and 'Payday is the Best Day' (with the memorable line “payday is the best day of all / it’s like a three-day festival”). I instantly liked his fantastic lyrics about everyday life. Shortly after that, I bought the album, 'Say It with Words', and the following single, 'A Church Hall of Sound', where you could find the great infidelity song, 'Another Man’s Laundry (Hanging on Your Line)', including another one of Hibbett’s wonderful lines, “Your freezer’s full of meat / which is something you don’t eat.” With his band The Validators, MJ has continued to release quite a lot of records since then (on their own, brilliantly named, label Artists Against Success), but for some reason, I hadn’t checked them out, until I got this new CD in my mailbox. 'Regardez, Ecoutez et Repetez' is their eighth album in ten years, and I’m glad to hear them again. MJ’s lyrics are as good as ever, with some highlights in the songs including 'It Only Works Because You’re Here' (which is about a faulty computer that starts working again as soon as help arrives), 'My Boss was in an Indie Band Once' and the opening track 'Being Happy Doesn’t Make You Stupid' (featuring the call-out “hey there emo boy, give us all a smile!”), and the music isn’t bad either! If I should try to make a comparison both lyrically and musically, I should probably say that it sounds a bit like a British version of Don Lennon, backed up by Heavenly. But with that said, comparisons are just lazy, and I think you should check this out yourself, unless you’re one of those that don’t think that you should mix music and humour. Too bad for you, then.

Track Listing:-

1 Being Happy Doesn't Make You Stupid
2 Do The Indie Kid
3 Do More, Eat Less
4 Best Behaviour
5 All The Good Men
6 We Can Start Having Fun
7 Red Black Gold
8 My Boss Was In An Indie Band Once
9 It Only Works Because You're Here
10 One Of The Walls Of My House Fell In
11 We're Old And We're Tired (And We Want To Go Home)
12 Leicester's Trying To Tell Me Something
13 Regardez, Ecoutez Et Repetez

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