Parkas - Now This Is Fighting

  by Geraint Jones

published: 18 / 2 / 2004

---

Review

From the outset there’s no denying the Parkas boldly asserted claim in the title of their debut album – from the huge riff on opener ‘Bus Station Blues’ onwards, as pop music goes, it’s a big and bold opening salvo. With little regard for convention across its ten tracks they’ve commandeered all manner of influences – garage rock, country rock, Stax soul, psychedelia and pop, turned their amps up to max and packaged it all in a box marked irresistible. As an inclination of what to expect, imagine the Who if they’d formed in Memphis rather than Shepherd's Bush. Surprisingly they're actually two brothers, a cousin and a best friend from Southern Ontario. Okay, so it’s not the centre of the rock universe…yet! Whatever the Parkas geographical origin, ‘Now This Is Fighting’ is a cracking debut and I suspect we’ll be hearing a lot more of them. And soon!

Track Listing:-

1 Bus Station Blues
2 Giants in my Field
3 My Life of Crime
4 Scam the Tram
5 The Art of Complication
6 This Colonial Affair
7 Every Light is Red
8 The Heart is Only a Muscle
9 Wildlife Reservations
10 Bombs Away