(from CWSY#9, June '02) / home / reviews index
Milky Wimpshake - Lovers Not
Fighters' (Fortuna Pop!)
An album full of no-nonsense independent pub-rock-ish pop - in the sense
of being a basic, try-it-yourself guitar-bass-drums sound - complete
with good pub chat. Not of the maudlin Moffat kind, but waxing lyrical
on any subject from sexually short-sighted Scrabble-playing and cleverclogs
girlfriends, to the (banjo-aided!) self-explanatory lift 'White Liberal
Guilt'; with songs in the modest, MJ Hibbett style of storytelling:
"I know the lyrics are quite crude/But I hope you can appreciate
the attitude." It's an album that leaves you with a warm glow
after you've left it, like a trip made to your friendly local without
even leaving your room. The problem with my local is that the barman
looks just like the ginger scientist out of Twelve Monkeys who released
an almost globe-destroying virus, so I'm always suspicious of the drinks
that he serves us in case we'll be the first of half the human race
to get wiped out. No such problems here!
The only real problem is the cloying 'Jack Ass' - their politics are more successful when more generalised, not when making a series of jokes around one minister's name - but that's only one too many! And how hard would it be to follow a cover of Spraydog's unrecognised classic 'Lemonade'? The title track is an upbeat, vigilant-with-violin finale that almost confirms the trio as a Geordie answer to fellow skilled er, wordsmiths, Australia's the Lucksmiths. Fortuna Pop! does it again…
