I should have reviewed this ages ago and I’ve certainly had it long enough, but for one reason or another I just haven’t got round to doing it. There’s no specific reason why, it just happened. But here it is now and I hope I do this record justice because it’s very good indeed. Infact it’s probably one of the best UK ska albums I’ve heard in a very long time. On a hot summer’s day there’s nothing better than listening to some ska on the way to work and Howards Alias have hardly left the Punktastic-mobile cd player all summer.
There seems to have been a decline in quality ska bands in recent times, mainly because some people would have you believe that ska is no longer ‘cool’. To an extent you can maybe see their point because when ska is done badly it can be pretty atrocious, but with more and more excellent bands coming out of the UK with ska and reggae influences there’s nothing better than pulling on your skanking shoes. Howards Alias are in the Premier League of UK ska bands right now, mixing it up with the other ska hybrid bands like NoComply and on the basis of albums like ‘The Chameleon Script’ there’s no reason why HA won’t go on even further.
I can’t exactly pinpoint why HA are so good and every time I try and summarise them all I can think of is the word ‘fun‘. Essentially HA are a band that will make you smile like Less Than Jake and Reel Big Fish do but without the sillyness. There are some great songs, some fantastic riffs and it’s all at a pace which will get you worked up into a sweat – there are guitars and horns in equal measure and at times it just oozes class. Tracks like the anthemic ‘Rob Wants Tou Dead’ and the closing stomper of ‘One To One’ are brilliant, brilliant songs. The latter is almost the perfect opening song as the brass section build up and the guitars and drums roll in. Then blam, the drums and brass kick in even harder and you have a crowd that are eating out of vocalist Matt’s hand.
‘The Temptress Tales’ and ‘Exile’ rock like bastards with huge choruses and ‘The Anti-Life’ just has a natural ability to make your foot tap. I’m sure there’s some kind of subliminal message in there somewhere making me do it, damn you. ‘Last Lung’ has some fantastic trumpet and trombone work which will really get any kind of pit going and when the vocals kick in at a faster than fast pace it just blends together extremely well. My only criticism is that some of the riffs do sound a little samey and on repeated listens it can become a little familiar. But just when you think ‘haven’t I just heard that?’ a track like ‘You’ pops along to wow you once again.
If you like your ska and you don’t yet own this record then you are seriously missing out. It’s fast and fun and I cannot wait to see them live. With them being southerners and having missed them everytime they play up north, the only way I knew I would get to see them would be to book them myself. In the words of a wise man, I can’t fucking wait…
www.howardsalias.co.uk
Paul