Victorian English Gentlemens' Club - Love on an Oil Rig

  by Sarah Maybank

published: 7 / 10 / 2009

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Review

Victorian English Gentlemen’s Club, we like your style. To open your album with its title track – and then make said track last about the same amount of time it takes to open a can of Coke – is a cheeky calculated risk. Despite its unwillingness to stick around for long, ‘Love On An Oil Rig’ (the song) makes its point with a maelstrom of bangs, crashes, chanted lyrics and brutal, woolly mammoth-sized guitar and synth riffs. It also sets out the band’s stall with efficient gusto, as the remaining 11 tracks cleave to a similar intense template. A pure moshpit pleaser – this will have you crowd-surfing the queue at Tesco should it crop up on your iPod – this works less well as sitting-at-home listening, simply because of the unven-ness of the melodies. However, face-to-face with a live audience - where the band’s chemistry, banter and twinkly-eyed sense of mischief act as sparkling relief to their bludgeoning sound – we can really see this going down a storm.

Track Listing:-

1 Love On An Oil Rig
2 Parrot
3 Watching The Burglars
4 Bored In Belgium
5 Periscope Envy
6 Worker
7 Driver's Companion
8 Women Versus Children
9 God Save Us From Being So Damn Primitive
10 Dog
11 The Venereal Game
12 I Say What I See