Dirtbombs - We Have You Surrounded

  by Andrew Carver

published: 22 / 6 / 2008

---

Review

Mick Collins used to be famous for creating bands at the drop of a hat. Blacktop, the Gories, King Sound Quartet, Voltaire Brothers and the Screws have all benefited from his membership. ‘We Have You Surrounded’ is his fifth studio album with The Dirtbombs (including their split with King Khan and Co.). Collins strongest feature is his husky soul voice. He toys with it a little, adopting a faint British accent for kickoff track ‘It’s Not Fun Until They See You Cry’ and singing in French for ‘Le Fin de la Monde’. Collins’ cross-band repertoire has dabbled in apocalyptica before, so it’s perhaps not a surprise to see it come to a head in ‘We Have You Surrounded’, both in his own songwriting, ‘Leopardman at C&A’ - a vision of a loopy future to come co-scripted with comics genius Alan Moore - and his choice to cover garage rock grandfathers Dead Moon's ‘Fire in the Western World’. That doesn’t mean he’s dropped the pop for a panoply of fuzzed out dirges: Fun touches like the dumbo “do-do-do-do-do” chorus of ‘Indivisible’ permeate the album, and he pays tribute to pop kingpins Sparks with a cover of ‘Sherlock Holmes’, which also allows the rest of the ban to show off their growing prowess as backing vocalists. If ‘We Have You Surrounded’ isn’t the finest example of fuzzed out fun in Collins’ catalogue, it’s only because his body of work stretches so far.

Track Listing:-

1 It's No Fun Until They See You Cry
2 Ever Lovin' Man
3 Indivisible
4 Sherlock Holmes
5 Wreck My Flow
6 Leopardman At C&A
7 Fire In The Western World
8 Pretty Princess Day
9 I Hear The Sirens
10 They Have Us Surrounded
11 Race To The Bottom
12 La Fin Du Monde

Label Links:-

http://intheredrecords.com/
https://www.facebook.com/In-The-Red-Re
https://instagram.com/intheredrecords/
https://twitter.com/intheredrecords