Review – The Drugs
“Music’s In Trouble”
album on
Rubber Records through BMG
What can be said about The Drugs that hasn’t already
been said? What can be said that isn’t clichéd or tries unsuccessfully to be
funny? Well, let’s take the album apart and see what, if anything new, can be
said about these ARIA-Award
almost-winners…
The accompanying press has “A sweet majestic string arrangement and
some well-placed key changes make this the definitive, M.O.R. signature sound The
Drugs are now renowned for” for all but three of the tracks (just
reading that is enough to… oh never mind); the other three being a horoscope, a
screen-play excerpt and an actual description of one of the tracks. The
free-with-purchase sticker is designed as an ad for Sma
Shits (sic) magazine cover with the Alex
Lloyd jibes continued from the front of the press release (“we talk
food, eating, and eating food with Alex
Lloyd”).
The sleeve concept is piss-funny, again, as expected. It’s an atypical
boy-band setting with all in white on white. Not that any of these guys
could remotely be considered for a boy-band… Inside, it’s what we’ve
come to expect… a bonus free password for the Drugs fan club membership,
anti-establishment digs in lyric and picture, and the Teddy Sexuals, TISM and Frenzal Rhomb stylings which we’ve
come to know and love.
There’s Burger King, Bold & the
Beautiful, Pam & Sam, Metal vs Hip
Hop and I Think I Know from their previous releases; the stand-outs BORED,
the title and Nothing for Everyone; add the obligatory untitled pieces
and you have a classic Drugs
record. So if it’s everything you’d expect, why go out and buy it?! Because
it’s piss funny, it’s great music, it’s The Drugs, and there’s more to
it than all of this (trust me – there is something here I haven’t
mentioned!!)
The Drugs “Music’s In Trouble” album on Rubber Records through BMG: what the hell do you have to do
to actually win an ARIA
anyway?! «««««