The Mob

"Rise Up" (7" Single, 2013) !Recommended!

All The Madmen

So then, the first new material from The Mob in ...well longer than I care to think about. So often did I see The Mob during their brief and vigorous life that they were part of the warp and weft of the time, a soundtrack to my adolescence. So much so, that I took them for granted and never really appreciated them. So when they reformed, it suddenly struck me how good they used to be, how much their music had meant to me, and I so wanted them to be good, and I was so happy that they were. I’ve seen them several times since then, and they have never been less than great, a claim that few can match - even young bands full of ambition. 

And so - the moment I’ve come to dread. The phrase that freezes the blood of anyone over a certain age - The New Stuff. The question being - in the cold light of day, not lost in the drunken nostalgia-rush of a gig– ‘is it any good?’ Not good as in ‘better than the other rubbish that’s around at the moment’, but good as in ‘as good as they used to be’. Not the weaker songs ‘as good as they used to be when they were good’. As good as the good stuff. 

Happily, the answer is a resounding ‘YES’. From the collectable pink vinyl housed in a screen printed sleeve, to the nicely basic production (peaking into the red in all the right places), this is clearly a labour of love from all concerned. And it’s a seriously great song that sounds like ...The Mob. Musically it would fit quite happily on their debut LP Let The Tribe Increase, although lyrically it’s closer to the slightly later Mirror Breaks 45, with a bitter , snarling scepticism in the lines:

“They’ll pretend to understand and they’ll make a few amends
But we’ve seen it all before and we’re not taking it again”. 

As with most Mob songs, musically it’s the interplay between the fluid bass and the clattering drums that holds the structure together and drives the song, with the choppy guitar resting lightly on top, building and releasing tension like the swelling waves on a stormy sea. Bung in a great shout-along chorus and it’s pretty much as good as you could hope for. There's Nothing You've Got I Want is less immediate, with a much slower tempo and distinctly notpunk harmonica on it. It may be a grower, but I haven’t listened to it enough to find out, as I keep playing the A-Side. 10/10 for the A-side 6/10 for the B-side

Nick Hydra (November 2013)