Orphan Boy - Coastal Tones

  by Dave Goodwin

published: 25 / 8 / 2015

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Review

I have, as it happens, a few connections with Orphan Boy. Not that they would know, you understand. My better half comes from Grimsby. Well, nearby Immingham to be exact, but most of her family have at some stage lived in and around Grimsby. I have a fondness for Cleethorpes, which adjoins Grimsby and is its seaside resort, due to the Winter Gardens Nighters that take place there. My team were always guaranteed to get drawn away the first match of the season against the Mariners at Blundell Park, so we would spend the day in the sunshine and the sea wrapped up in fish and chips. But where have I been music wise I ask myself? Why have I not bumped into the brilliant Orphan Boy on my travels? If you haven't discovered Orphan Boy yet then you must start here and by letting me tell you how lucky we are to have them at all. You see, Orphan Boy for a while were no more. "The final gig was absolute chaos," recalls singer-guitarist Rob Cross of their emotional farewell in 2011 to 500 diehard fans at The Beachcomber, Cleethorpes. "The stage was invaded after every single song. It was really shambolic, and it meant we never had proper closure. There was this sense of the band having... unfinished business." Just they were about to hit the big time the band -Rob Cross (guitar/vocals), Paul 'Smithy' Smith (bass) and Chris Day (drums) - decided that enough was enough. Grimsby is a town that sometimes gets severely overlooked. I say overlooked because I have been there in winter and summer alike and there doesn't seem to be much going on at all there, especially in austerity-torn 2015 and even more especially when the centre of pretty much all of music in Britain remains London. This is what this third outing is all about. But this doesn't sound like a seasoned band. 'Coastal Tones' sounds like a band that has just discovered itself. And this time they seem to have Lady Luck on their side too. In the middle of 2012 Tom Clarke from the Enemy tweeted that he'd discovered a great band called Orphan Boy and offered them a support at a Manchester gig, which gave them a reason to start playing again and in their own words "the songs flowed from there." With their 2008 debut album 'Shop Local', they introduced themselves to the world with a street-level sound the band named 'council pop'. They then moved to Manchester, and in 2010 released the more experimental 'Passion, Pain & Loyalty' spawning an anthemic single 'Some Frontier'. Although they had a strong local support, they didn't hit it off nationwide. Until now. If this doesn't do it then for Orphan Boy, then there is no justice in this world. From the start, the songs on 'Coastal Tones' have hits written all over them. 'Beats Like Distant Tides' is the track of the year. The sound of a Cleethorpes ice-cream van’s jingle starts a description of a neglected North and its dreary docks. It is like Alex Turner's the Last Shadow Puppets minus the strings but with more melody. They don't just keep it to themselves either. Doncaster, Basingstoke and Scunthorpe among others all get a mention in the sax-laden gem 'On a Nelson Skyline' which apparently was inspired by the view from a Grimsby tower block. Have a close listen to 'Sunken Hearts' and tell me that you can't hear Brett Anderson in there. Big names, I hear you question. Well, this is as big as the names I suggest. 'Transpennine', for instance, is like early New Order but with more observation and awareness of what's going on around. If that doesn't hook you try the screaming guitars in 'From the Provinces'. This is good. And the rest of this ten track wonder is just the same. It is quite clear from this that it is time to open the docks of your ears, turn up the gas in the industrial gasworks of your consciousness and throw ketchup all over the newspapered fish and chips of your imagination. It is time to batten down the hatches and make ready. Orphan Boy are coming!

Track Listing:-

1 Beats Like Distant Tides
2 Sunken Hearts
3 Transpennine
4 On a Nelson Skyline
5 From the Provinces
6 Money to Money
7 Clover
8 Bury Your Stars
9 Coastal Tones
10 Thirtysomething Lovesick Ballad

Band Links:-

http://www.orphan-boy.com/
https://www.facebook.com/orphanboyuk
https://twitter.com/orphanboyuk

Label Links:-

http://www.concreterecordings.co.uk/