By my reckoning this is Vanilla Pod‘s first new record since ‘Surrounded By Idiots’, which came out a fair while ago now. As the title suggested, that record was tinged with a hint of bitterness about the demise of the good old days of the UK punk scene and a time when melodic punk ruling things. If anything, 5 or 6 years later, melodic punk is just about the deadest form of punk still going, so Vanilla Pod‘s return is more than welcome and its great to see that the lads are still playing shows, still not worried that they slip under the radar and that this record is destined probably not to sell very much. What’s great is that, with this kind of stuff quite so notable by its absence, maybe this one will get a bit more notice than ‘Surrounded…’ or ‘Third Time Lucky’ ever got back at the beginning of the decade.
The main thing about ‘Poets on Payday’ is it’s a solid record. The tempo has gone down a touch, this is a real Samiam/No Fun At All kind of sounding record. The riffs are kept minimal, the ideas are entirely borrowed from Face To Face and Diesel Boy and there is absolutely no sense of shame about it. It’s got a kind of Dischord records style production – reminds of Kids Near Water records or something like that. It’s probably the absolute antithesis of A Wilhelm Scream. And I would say the world needs a bit of it right now.
It’s not a classic, simply because it’s not the catchiest record in the world, but it is certainly a breathe of fresh air in the current climate of congested hardcore bands. It’s barely a full record (9 tracks with 2 older, unreleased bonus tracks) and the seeming laidback, lack of effort of approach to the whole thing is risky, but suits the Pod to the ground. Everything needs to be done slowly, with a can of cider in hand. Back in the day, I was label mates with this lot, and they never really cared about trends or what people thought and sucking up to the press etc – this record epitomizes all of that. It’s well worth a listen.
Mike S