London's Calling: Sports Team's "Deep Down Happy" album review

Having written a ode to Sports Team in anticipation of this album, I feel duty bound to follow-up with a review. Was the "Anticipation. Anticipation. Anticipation." worth it?

Disclosure:  I'm a lover not a writer.  My objective faculties are compromised by passion. My hearing isn't as good as it used to be so lyrical references may be flawed too.

Deep Down Happy has been a long time coming. It has arrived both later than planned - and then earlier than first delayed - amidst the maelstrom of seismic world events.  That it arrives in a world so changed by events paradoxically makes this debut feel in part like a retrospective collection rather than a debut.  

The album launch we would have had with a string of intimate record store gigs and home-grown publicity stunts will never be. Instead the album has to stand by itself and compete in a world where our attention is elsewhere.

“Oh, you’ve been waiting for a while" is the fitting opening cry. In Lander, we have a abrupt start. Rather than the accessible indie pop tune that we may have expected, we are instead dealt a sonic assault par excellence. 

Casting aside the rule book, Sports Team's lead singer Alex Rice does not even voice the opening track.  Instead song writer and guitarist Robert Knaggs delivers more than sings a monologue atop rising and falling waves of sound.  His biting words a lament on the banality and hollowness of small town existence. Life and expectations in hollowed out satellite towns in the orbit and shadow of the capital. "There's no club in this town any more. But if you want to do drugs you could always go to London" 

 

By the last 30 seconds of Lander when Knagg's barbed rant is spent we are left with the fabulous Wedding Present-esque wall of guitar, underpinned with Ben Mack's keyboards,  thumping bass from Oli Dewdney and swirling drum patterns from Al Greenwood. It finishes as it starts abruptly leaving this listener hungry. 

Singer Alex Rice is now into the fray with a string of more familiar uptempo tunes. Dazed only momentarily by Lander, we are swept along at pace. Game on. 

Here it Comes Again works up a sweat,  Going Soft in its wake.  With some signature smart word play, likened already to Brit Pop royalty Blur and Pulp, the band poke fun at the world and themselves.  Their ability to craft compact indie anthems must now be unquestioned.  

The side swipes continue in re-recorded fan favourite Camel Crew. The album's frenetic tempo is easing by now, but the choruses still rousing.  Fans may be divided as which version of is best.  I like both but am sold on reworking for this album as it helps push back against familiarity of the tracks for those of us already invested.  The fresh recording has a sharpness. Lead guitarist Henry Young's brief solo is simple but bites like the lyrics.  Brings a tear to my eye too...

Taking the tempo down. The mood changes for Long Hot Summer. Robert Knaggs is back on vocals. Sports Team again content to mix things up.  Gravelly vocals muse on a ill matched relationship (with person or place it's not immediately clear) "I'd rather be dead than caught in your web".  The side one closer (remember when LPs had sides) picks up the pace and sees Rice back with the vocal distortion turned up. Railing against the suit and tie.  "You know it feels like fun" repeats the ranting outro. 

Wrapped with a lyrical twist Sports Team's observations on the mundane of middle england, with neat character based narrative, often include some political bite.  Their politics may be wrapped in silk glove and delivered in an upbeat pop tune but the lyrical pen cuts and jabs like a blade. For side two this politics bubbles up. In much radio played Here's the Thing, a Rice and Knaggs double act call out accepted injustices and self righteous simplistic fixes to the world's problems, they're  all just "Lies, Lies, Lies".  Next The Races, a caricature of your least favourite flag waving uncle.   

Fresh song Born Sugar "The Golden Watch Brigade don't ever watch the game" is followed by singles recent -Fishing - and past -Kutcher. Both live favourites and each worth the entrance fee.  Again the number of tracks that have already seen the light of day may leave those already familiar feeling hungry for more, but why not share these treats more widely...

If Lander is the opening call, then final track Stations of the Cross provides the ending response. Companion book ends to this debut collection.  The religious ritual-like progression of the twenty-something leaving education and heading inexorably to the rat race. The closing rant sees Alex Rice's angst a reverberation of Robert Knaggs' opening diatribe. London's Calling. "If you want to find love you could always go to London" 

Is this a number one album?  If Sports Team can unite those of us old enough to have enjoyed the first wave of indie with those young enough for all this to feel entirely new, then why not? It would be a remarkable achievement (and in the mid week charts it is already leading the pack propelled by pre-order bundles an invested fan base and decent radio play). 

"Album of the decade"?  I hope not. This is a good debut. No question. But albums two or four must surely be contenders, we just need to ensure they are still around to make them.  

To sum up, buy it and try it, it'll be worth it (at time of writing it's on offer on iTunes and only £4.99 on Amazon for a CD). If enough people invest in this album we'll hopefully get a second helping soon. 

More please Sports Team. 

The state we are in: on Cummings not going.

I have been incensed, like many, by the recent Dominic Cummings debacle.  I write these words in part to "vent" at the troubling state we are in. 

To me, the "one rule for us another for them" Cummings affair shows that  when push comes to shove that Boris Johnson cares more about his own political interests than our sacrifices for wider public health. The embarrassing sight of his ministers sent out to argue that driving 40 miles to test your eyesight is in anyway normal (and not a piss poor excuse for a day trip during "lockdown") was painful. To suggest that leaving home and travelling the length of the country whilst ill with symptoms was not in any way at odds with with clear messaging at the time to stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives, is an insult to our intelligence.   

At a time when we should be united to get through this crisis, the Prime Minister's response to this affair has served to undermine the public effort.  Instead of doing the obvious thing to draw a line under the matter so the focus can return to the things that  matter (not even an apology or sign of contrition), we get the "truth twisters" playing with our minds. Government cheerleaders in the press are now going after the journalists and sources who brought the matter to our attention to question motives and cast doubt on what is clear.    

That the Government are trying to reframe the story into one where Cummings is a victim tells you much about how this administration works.  It's a 'full on' physcological propaganda battle to this lot -an approach that I find deeply disturbing. What's right and wrong no longer appear to matter. Remember the past warnings from senior conservatives casting doubt on Johnson's suitability for high office?  I think they have been borne out through his actions on this.  A new ugly politics played to different rules is evident.

As the "cheerleader" press and social media rearguard now fight to cloud and obfuscate, one thing is clear to me, the government are not giving 100% of their effort to dealing with this pandemic. There has always seemed to be more effort focused on controlling the story than the virus. The consequences have been predictably appalling.  We deserve better.

What can we do?   Call it out.  Write to your MP.  If we expect better we need to make that clear. Whether that's enough remains to be seen. But if we don't act, what a sorry state we'll be left in.

For the record

This post is about an old feeling rekindled.  Anticipation for the release of a new album.  Anticipation which, to be honest, I thought I'd never feel again; that is, until I was introduced to the music of Sports Team.  

The best music provokes a reaction.  Not everyone enjoys the same musical style, but when a tune gets you, you are possessed. Some are slow burners that seep in. Some instant hits that grab you straight away. It's magic.

Music is also a glue that binds us.  As the soundtrack to our lives is laid, music helps cement our memories to people, places and times.  The moments it can create can be truly special.  Finding common ground in a sweaty room full of strangers as a band wins you over.  Being carried to a collective high in a festival field.  No words. Boom! 

Growing up, music was fiercely tribal - a shared passion meant joining the gang, embracing the subculture.  It involved collecting records, making and sharing tapes, listening to particular radio shows, following the dress code and going to shows. Anticipation and excitement for the next record release was a big part of this. 

In my school days I was carried by the NWOBHM - one of an army of  teenage metal outcasts queing on a rainy night to see Motorhead.  In my university days it was indie - a beer swilling student following The Wedding Present from gig to gig: one minute "pay on the door" the next, trying to blag your way on to the guest list to a show that sold out weeks back.  

I can vividly remember the anticipation of waiting to hear AC/DC's 1980 album Back in Black. The impact of the stark black album cover a tribute to the death of the band's previous singer Bon Scott.  The tolling bell of the opening track Hell's Bells.  It could have been the end of AC/DC but, no; from tragedy came triumph.  Anticipation turned to exhilaration.

Nothing lasts forever.  As life moves on, the way I have connected with music and bands has moved on too.  It's been a while since I have felt any anticipation for an album at all. 

Enter Sports Team, and an old school introduction from my brother: "You've got to see this band.  There's something about them."  He'd seen them at a gig in Liverpool and was in no doubt.  Through the magic of streaming, seconds in to the first song I heard - M5- I was already sold. 

Fast forward to present - three live shows seen - yes, they've got something; several singles purchased -real vinyl ones; and I am caught hook line and sinker.  Anticipation.  Anticipation.  Anticipation.

It's been a while since I've felt like a fan as in fanatical about a band.  It's a good feeling to have again - rejuvinating.  Instead of writing a letter to the music press or the DJ you got this blog.  Thanks Sports Team.  Yours in anticipation for the record.