Tuesday 13 October 2009

Review - The Yalla Yallas - Act of Defiance

The Yalla Yallas - Act of Defiance

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5 out of 10

How do you get a hidden track on a digital only album? Does a Leeds band heavily inspired by the Clash sound like an English Rancid? All these questions and more will be answered within this document!

The Yalla Yallas make no bones about liking The Clash, and especially Joe Strummer. There’s nothing wrong with that, and a lot of that influence can be heard on the tracks here. However, rather than taking a huge range of influences, as indeed The Clash themselves did, The Yalla Yallas are a fairly straightforward punk rock band, coming off as something like a cross between Rancid without the ska (except on the hidden track, which sounds like a bespectacled teenage boy with terrible acne and even worse social skills trying to play a Specials song on his keyboard to impress a moderately pretty girl who only came round because she felt a bit sorry for him and their mums are friends) and every People Like You Records band ever. It’s not bad exactly, it’s just rather unremarkable.

If you like your punk straightforward and comfortable, kind of like a pair of well worn slippers with metal studs, then you’ll probably enjoy this. In fact, if you’re a People Like You Records fan then you’ll probably lap it up.

Oh, and in answer to the questions I decided to start this review with and then forgot about - by leaving a gap at the end of the track before, and yes a bit.

Listen: www.myspace.com/theyallayallas

Tracklist:
1. Intro
2. Big Idea
3. Stand Up
4. Love, Anger and the Credit Card Crunch
5. Retaliation (Doesn’t Make it Alright)
6. Let’s Riot
7. I Felt Love
8. Sea
9. What Are We Fighting For?
10. Girls Are Meaner Than Boys
11. Rock n Roll Kid
12. The Ghost of Gulbransen Pacemaker (Hidden Track)
13. Girls Are Meaner Than Boys (Acoustic) - Bonus Track
14. Retaliation (Acoustic) - Bonus Track

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