New Boomtown Rats Album - Citizens Of Boomtown

Back after more than 30 years since their last album was released.

Trash Glam Baby I enjoyed the first time I heard it. Good clean rockin' fun and always the favourite for lead single. The video borrows a bit from Lyla, to my eyes. It's an all-out pop assault with the Rats trademark "Oh oh oh oh!" catchy chant (There's always someone looking at you oh oh oh oh) popping up on time. I've heard it described as a Suede knock-off but Anderson has rarely put his hand to anything as predictable as this. You can use the word 'shit' as much as you like but what you've got here is a radio-friendly pop tune ripe for the picking, if they still played songs like this on the radio. It's a joyful little number that oozes nostalgia, to my ears.

Sweet Thing, with its Teen Spirit undertones, chugs along cheekily using Bowie's Let's Dance intro as its outro.

Monster Monkeys is Come Together with a touch of Sign 'O' The Times later on. You can hear the raw Geldof voice here without its usual quirky dramatics in this faux funk stroller.

Ready? Steady? Go! She Says No is a manic 60s-stylee Dead Man In My Bed footstomper about long tall daddy Geldof (answering his phone in the middle of Man Utd v Man City on TV) and his live-apart partner who at one point during the call, replies to his suggestion that the answer to their problem lies between his legs, "I don't think she got the joke when she screamed No!" - he sings firmly tongue in cheek (he has to - he's 68 for crissakes) He knows his place, though, offering to order her a biryani-to-go when she asks him "Where d'you think we're going?" When the 4/4 tambourines join the party I'm even visualizing Liam Gallagher in the corner of the studio, it's got that kind of feel to it. It's all to no avail, though, as Saint Bob's cellphone breathes fire with his sweetheart's parting words "Argh you fucking prick!" And it's back to the match for him. This song is a cracking riot.

Passing Through is a ballad, perhaps consciously slowing the pace after the first three rockers - but it doesn't work, to my ears. He's gone for the Brett Anderson metallic-effect vocals and it all sounds past its sell-by. Crooner, he isn't. But it does have a redeeming little jazzy piano outro.

Here's A Postcard is Geldof back in the day, or looking back on the day, a sunny day, in sunny London, ice cream and girls in high heels...He rattles off the verses a little in the style of Graceland or The Boy In The Bubble, kind of hugging the words, getting his tongue around each of them, cosying up to them, over a snappy upbeat groove. It's pleasant enough but you'd think there was more significant days in his diaries to write about.

I don't know if K.I.S.S. is an ode to the radio station, an acronym for selfish sex ("Gonna cum and then run, with a K.I.S.S.") or simply just the word kiss with dots. Basically it's their own little It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) - try this : "Ripped out, tripped out, DJ give a shout-out, At the end of the world, at the final twirl, gonna find me a girl, Soul take a stroll, gotta be a love mole, digging in that hole..." breakneck delivery and, erm, rather in the style of aforementioned REM song. Just hum a verse of It's The End Of The World while reading and you've got the song without hearing it. But wait, it doesn't end there, and the introduction of an uncredited rapper halfway through does nothing to help the track along - think how Q-Tip blended so wonderfully into the R.E.M track The Outsiders - this is not one of those moments, and the homie rapper by yer man from the yard does as well as the band on this, which isn't saying too much.

Rock 'N' Roll Yé Yé is easy to describe. For the chorus you take the backing track for 'I Love Rock And Roll' (handclaps and all) and sing a suitably similar rock and rollish vocal anthem over it and for the verses you pretend to be Bob Dylan doing Knocking On Heaven's Door. I have to say, it's a monumental embarrassment.

Get A Grip tells the story of Saint Bob imploring a drug-addled girl to quit the stuff. It's a manic little number recounting the meme queen whose tit shot uploads draw millions of likes, and who is giving it up for Zuckerberg - coupling that with 'suckered girl' must rank with anti-Christ/anarchist' surely? He rattles off the lyrics like Joel in We Didn't Start The Fire, "Ketamine, heroin, crack cocaine, amphetamines, Pilled up, filled up, it's hardcore, drug store, looking for the next score." Have no doubts about it, this girl is in deep trouble alright but him telling her "It can't be good for your health" is the understatement of the century so far. He's not so much the despairing boyfriend here so much as the concerned priest whose picked up a few choice words from the more rebellious alter boys of the parish. The song's a goer, though, with Simon Crowe's rapid drumfire emphasizing the overall urgency of the number.

The final cut, called The Boomtown Rats, is an older song, maybe redone, I don't know. It's a lamentable synth-driven hi-energy mash-up with stop-start beats, techno sound effects, and a repetitive cry of "the BOOM-town Rats". The kindest thing to say about it is it wouldn't be out of place in the opening credits of The Football Factory (the now familiar version of the film opens with Swastika Eyes but the original cut used Supersonic, if you're lucky enough to have seen it, much the better of the two, to my ears)

So the album opens with a belter and closes with a rotter. But there's some scraps of decent pop music in there. And if you want pop music by a bunch of elders then all the better. 


Also, Oasis, Supersonic, kicking in after one minute of the original Football Factory opening.