Wind-up Birds - Poor Music
by Maarten Schiethart
published: 29 / 5 / 2014
Label:
Sturdy Records
Format: CD
intro
Ramshackle but largely appealing Britpop and New wave-influenced debut album from Leeds-based band, the Wind-up Birds
The predominant organ riffs on the opening track 'There Will Be No Departures from This Stand', 'RSVP' and 'The Wind-up Birds Song Writing Workshop' initially force a comparison to the Inspiral Carpets. Nonetheless with similar melodic sway, the Wind-Up Birds engage on a hayride through whichever unexplored territory in the Kingdom of Britpop and New Wave was left. 'Poor Music' solely refers to the album's promotional budget and ignores its instant appeal. Other than Jarvis Cocker, you would be be hard fetched to find a more sincere Northern soul than Paul Ackroyd. 'Poor Music' is also reminiscent of the carefree ramshackle once produced by Babyshambles. The album finds its neat balance between Ackroyd's laconic banter and the Wind-u Birds' thunderbird tweets. 'Poor Music', for example, excels in gloriously urgent Britpop, with hammering organ riffs to prove the point. The title track however is a piss poor sing-along tune, as are a few other moments on this album in which in all their mediocrity the Arctic Monkeys seem to creep up in the background. There are no less than seventeen tracks on this album, and these include a couple of minor classics like 'Jesus Puns' or 'Bus Drove Off'. Lacking the anecdotal witty genius of Half Man Half Biscuit, The Wind-Up Birds do however relatively well. I'd reckon the Wind-Up Birds lack the self-irony to appear on Liverpool's Probe Plus label. They do, however, deliver a couple of cracking tunes that recall the Inspiral Carpets.
Track Listing:-
1 There Will Be No Departures fro2 Poor Music
3 Bus Drove Off
4 Two Ambulance Day
5 Glue Factory I
6 The Gristle
7 Jesus Puns
8 Bar Sadness
9 Addis Ababa
10 A Song or Two
11 The Wind-Up Birds Song Writing
12 Glue Factory II
13 Mate Crime
14 RSVP/Crackers
15 Guy Ritchie
16 Glue Factory III
17 On the Ropes...but Then
Band Links:-
https://twitter.com/thewindupbirdshttp://thewind-upbirds.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Wind-up-Birds/372018589508943
Label Links:-
http://sturdy-records.co.uk/https://www.facebook.com/SturdyRecords/
https://twitter.com/sturdyrecords
https://sturdy-records.bandcamp.com/
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