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8 out of 10
Starting with the haunting moan of a fiddle "Let's Hang The Landlord" delivers a sudden roundhouse kick of guitar, languidly transferring to a springier acoustic ballad. Soon enough the proceedings build to a chorus of crashing drums, harsh power chords and fiddle that gives The King Blues an edge that marks them out from most other contemporary 'Punk' groups.
The lyrics are delivered in a decidedly "fuck orf" (Bob Geldolf) 'Lun-Dun' accent and while vaguely reminiscent of The Clash, The King Blues appear to inhabit the same territory as Flogging Molly or maybe even the grand monarchs of the gutter folk, The Pogues. This particular single presents the same kind of dark city tale that Shane McGowan managed to conjure so astutely time and time again: punk squats in Clapham covered in graffiti, leather biker jackets, day trips to Brighton drinking red wine and sniffing glue, quite simply living out the very worst of times imaginable yet consequently making the very best of it.
Finally the whole debacle breaks down to a ukulele backed sobering verse that sounds as if it is being croaked down a telephone line in the visiting room of a prison. Yet quick as a flash the song stomps back to a final triumphant chorus! The switch from the sober to celebratory surely harks back to the original F-U Punk attitude, two fingers to the 'high' society and all their pretensions, because we don't care.
Those essential feelings of impending triumph; the suppressed under class are finally going to get to "Walk on the Sunny Side of The Street" and seize victory in the face of adversity. Whether vesting hope in such projects is essentially futile is no doubt the subject of a thousand and one Sociology PhD thesis, which The King Blues will probably never read. After all, if this single is anything to go by they will most likely be too busy lynching property owners to worry about malformed academic texts.
Listen: www.myspace.com/thekingblues
Tracklist:
1. Let's Hang The Landlord
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