OK, so in even reviewing this I’m opening myself up to abuse. But I’m entitled to an opinion as much as anyone else and so here it is. Moon Ska’s latest release is that of Milton Keynes quartet Graveltrap, a band who are making a name for themselves following their ‘SRJ’ video hitting our TV screens through P-Rock TV. The simple thing is this really – if you like that song you’ll probably like the rest of the album. If you don’t it’s one to avoid like the plague. Graveltrap play a poppy watered down version of Green Day, with ska elements lobbed in from time to time and unfortunately it’s neither original or exciting.
The excrutiatingly badly named ‘Concrete and Udder Chaos’ (I assume this is a dig at their home town) is an average record, no more or less. Fans of the band have compared this to the early works of such bands as The Ataris, which is fair enough, but those bands did that in 1998 – five years on and there’s no improvement on the formula. It’s safe, inoffensive pop-punk which doesn’t compare to recent records by Fletcher and Route 215. Hell, it makes Whitmore look amazing. Ahem.
There are some good moments on this record I will admit. ‘Getaway’ is fantastically catchy while the aforementioned ‘SRJ’ is probably the highlight, bouncy pop-punk without sticking to a rigid verse/chorus/verse formula which plagues many of the songs. ‘Last Chance‘ is a decent effort too and ‘Drop Out’ is a potential single-in-waiting. The rest of it is pretty generic stuff. The dual vocals work at times but in some places the harmonies seem to be there for the sake of it, rather than adding anything purposeful. Opener ‘Primal Fear’ has a riff which sounds uncannily familiar and the appropriately named ‘Balls Up’ has a horrible middle eight part rap/spoken word concoction which is vile. I swear it’s ripped from a recent pop song, I just can’t place which one. And don’t even get me started on the secret track, a song which shouldn’t have ever made it anywhere near the cd. A terrible way to end proceedings.
So I expect the street teamers and fans to heckle and abuse in their droves, but the fact of the matter is that there are hundreds of bands who do something similar to Graveltrap and better them. This isn’t the worst record of the year by any means but it’s pretty generic stuff. They might be great live, but on the basis of this I’m not inspired enough to check them out further.
www.graveltrap.org.uk
Paul