The Enemy - 'We'll Live And Die In These Towns'
What is it about this band which induces total white-page-fever in me? It's as if they possess the ability to freeze snarky opinions within the brain of the onlistener, forever trapped in an endless loop that goes "Cuh! Sounds a bit like the Jam AGAIN....Cuh! Sounds a bit like the Jam AGAIN..." over and over, with no possibilty that it will ever transform into well-reasoned argument. I listen to their music, I think things about it, I fire up the ChartBlog EnBlogUlator, poise the fingers over the keyboard, set my eyes to 'glassy, as though dreamily inspired', and...AND....
Poop.
And it clearly only happens to non-believers. Look at this live review I found on the blog. It's very entertaining, if a litle misanthropic (you've got to love a rab-phobic old gipper who approves of people shouting "Get off!" at Lethal Bizzle, it's sort of cute, in a weird way).
Anyway, he's got lots to say about the band. He even describes 'We'll Live And Die In These Towns' as sounding like the Style Council (which is the band Paul Weller formed after he split the Jam up), so at least we're all on the same wavelength. I would disagree slightly, in that it actually sounds less like the jazzy, soulful Council and more like late-period Jam, as if 'That's Entertainment' were recorded using the same sonic bag of tricks which produced the band's Phil Spector epic 'The Bitterest Pill (I Ever Had To Swallow)'.
It's weird, thinking about it, how much of this song is indebted to 'That's Entertainment'. The lyrics of the two songs are very similar - each one a list of things which are bad about trying to scrape a living when you've got no cash and no prospects. Each one grimly compelling, and each one beginning with the exact same strum on an acoustic guitar.
But where the Jam version goes for the black comedy chorus "a freezing cold flat and damp on the walls, that's entertainment", and an angelic choir going "la la la", like a Liverpudlian Tellytubby, Thenemy opt for the defiant - but hopeless - repetition of the song's title. Which is kind of rousing and sort of expresses solidarity with the people the song is about...but could've used a much better melody to get this across, in my humble opinion.
Or to put it another way, the bits of this song which haven't been pinched off the Jam are the weakest bits. No wonder I'm having such trouble finding anything to say, there's nothing TO say.
*sigh*
Oh, I know, seeing as I've been banging on about 'That's Entertainment', why don't we all have a listen together, yeah?
'SGood, innit?
Download: Out now
CD Released: December 3rd
(Fraser McAlpine)
Comments
Umm i dont know what this comment is for but i think that 'the Enemy' is going to become a great new band!
Wish all of the crew the best of luck,
Love megan, cornwall
xxx
Isn't the title of this track somewhat ironic, given that in all probability The Enemy would have made enough money by now not to be living in the kind of crappy town that they keep on whining about?
And I thought the Manics were miserable...
bahahahahaha
did you ever think the enemy might have written this song before they were 'famous' and may even have a different context?
maybe it's not s***, maybe it's the prospects that are available that aren't so good?
anyhow
it's a tune
:) they deserve to do well, they've worked hard enough for it.