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The Enemy: Music for the people
Review: Delves into history to plunder the influence of some of England's best ever bands.
It would be easy for me to slate The Enemy’s second album. I was all set up for an interview with the band in April, until lead singer Tom Clarke pulled the gig that was planned in Galway due to an illness. Despite this snub, I must say, Music For The People is a fine album, which delves even further into history to plunder the influence of some of England’s best ever bands. Oasis, The Jam, The Stone Roses, The Sex Pistols and The Clash can all be heard on this album. We even get “Sing When You’re In Love”, which is a dead ringer for Springsteen's most upbeat, heartfelt numbers.
And, of course, we get social commentary, with lines like, “Screwed-up wrappers from a take-away meal, scattered all over the floor, this sin’t glamorous, it’s not rock ‘n’ roll, this is England on a Saturday night, this is a nation’s soul”, from lead single “No Time For Tears”, and the self-explanatory “Nation Of Checkout Girls”.
There’s also more rousing, political tunes, like “51st State” and “Don’t Break The Red Tape”. These carry the sound of The Clash perfectly into the 21st century. The opening verse of “Don’t Break The Red Tape” reads: “Welcome to England, where there is no fun, and there is no choice, for any of us/ Where there is no left, there is no right, New Labour’s a joke, just another Thatcherite!” Somebody should tell Clarke’s hero, Noel Gallagher. Both have the confrontational tone, along with intelligent lyrics of The Clash, and Clarke even takes a stab at a few Joe Strummer-like howls.
“Be Somebody” is classic Enemy. It is a tale of a man who gets a job in the city, and is laid off. Basically, it’s The Jam 30 years on. Not that there is anything wrong with that; if you’re going to be heavily influenced by bands, they might as well be the best.
“Elephant Song”, the opener, is reminiscent of The Stone Roses’ “I Wanna Be Adored”, with a slow, grinding build-up, then a surge of a song, and a quick ending.
Unfortunately, the problem with making the best debut album since Definitely Maybe is that people expect you to make the best follow-up album since (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? Of course, Clarke’s crew don’t make it, mainly due to a batch of ill-chosen slow tracks. He doesn’t carry these efforts off as well as his idols Gallagher or Paul Weller. Yet “Last Goodbye” and “Keep Losing” seem vastly out of place in comparison to Music For The People's punkier elements, and the lyrics are pretty shabby.
“Silver Spoon” is the closer, heavy on piano, but low on decent lyrics. The gist of it is that Clarke has “never had a silver spoon” to do something or other that rhymes with spoon. Not that it is awful, it just falls short of the standard required for arguably Britain’s most relevant band. There is a hidden song, which we get after nearly four minutes of silence. If features only Clarke on piano, and is a welcome comedown, and really fits into the album’s sound. It is a fine, heartfelt song, in the mould of Weller’s best slowies.
Overall, this album certainly sounds like a “huge, proper old school rock record”, as their MySpace page claims. Perhaps the fault here is that Clarke is now aware of how important his band’s work is, whereas We’ll Live And Die In These Towns, was just Clarke’s true writing.
Rating: 7/10
Download 3: “Don’t Break The Red Tape”, “51st State”, “No Time For Tears”
By: Ciaran Leinster
