Jo Webb and the Dirty Hands - Acrobat

by Benjamin Howarth

published: 5 / 4 / 2009

Label: Clean Feet Records
Format: CD

Fine debut album from Jo Webb and the Dirty Hands, whose blend of power pop has a deep edge

Review

Hmmm… how does one go about reviewing power-pop? It’s a tricky business. I picked out a great example of the genre for praise elsewhere in this month’s edition, the sadly defunct Jellyfish, and even though they are an especially fine dose of an especially fine musical vintage, I ran out of anything to say after a paragraph. But I sense that in this, a stand-alone review of a newly released album, the baying public (not to mention, for that matter, the band, who have after all put rather a lot of time into this album) would expect more than three sentences. Well, folks, we’re on our third paragraph already, and I’ve told you nothing of value yet. Maybe it won’t be so hard after all. But the hard cold fact with power pop is that you are either good at it, or you aren’t - if you think you can see middle ground between those too positions, look harder, because its surely actually a deep and uninviting river. Luckily, Jo Webb and his unfortunately named band are good at it, scarily so, in fact. They drop themselves at the deeper end of the power pop pool, where guitar parts are chunky, choruses are fast and verses are short, sharp little beasts. Guitar solos pop up occasionally, and are smartly done whenever this is so. These songs are of the naggingly catchy variety. It is simple really. I haven’t found out much about the band - they don’t go in for celebrity culture, they tell us on their website, but you are forced to wonder if this was really a conscious rejection. Anyway… influences range from XTC to Roger Waters to Todd Rundgren to the Beach Boys and all the way up to Thin Lizzy. You like them already, right? So why haven’t we heard about them before? Its baffling. Power pop never seems to get the credit it deserves. Whatever happens to be in fashion at any given time, it generally isn’t. So, probably, Jo Webb won’t be famous, but you’d like his songs anyway. So go buy.