Andy Xport

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Still Shakin' The Bush Boss!

Release Date

2008

Label

Man's Hate

Price

£1.00

Contact

http://www.myspace.com/manshate

Review

Frankenangel's ultra sublime cover (it's right up there with 'Sgt. Pepper'!) means that the music inside has a lot to live up to, but it's glorious. A glorious kicking is given to that cold, unfeeling monolith that is the Establishment, and the music is as good if not better than when Andy's last album 'Turning Pleasantly Numb' came out in '89.

This is an internetised Andy Xport, utilising snippets from comedian Mark Thomas, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, and The Ramones, plus covering 'Consume' by Cress, and, if I'm correct, Andy's first love song is on here, 'Kisses Never Lie', with lyrics by Tim Eldridge. Lots of snippets of dreadful people talking garbage, from 'war hero' prince harry to tony bliar doing a 'funny' turn with Catherine Tate. The only weakness of this album is the dreadful people - I'd rather not hear these idiots. They've said enough already, though they do their best to hoist themselves by their own petards here!

Best tracks are 'Widow Six Seven' and 'Royal Fellowship Of Death', which both have a great driving guitar rhythm, and 'Widow Six Seven' has a fabulous spatial sound halfway through. 'Brave Neu World' is the most inventive song on the album, appropriately robotic as it's about Big Brother creeping into our society, especially with ID cards. Pretty much everything is covered here - global warming/animal cruelty ('Bite Back' - a catchy grower, which I was humming cutting the hedge!), celebs buying babies ('Madonna Bought My Babies'), the arms trade ('He's Armless'), the hypocrisy and divisiveness of religion ('God's On Our Side Not Yours'), the sheep-like consumer society ('Consume'), lying world leaders desperate to get their hands on Iraqi oil ('Sexed Up'), and using the internet to fight back ('Internet Warriors'). 'Better Class Of Yob' is a wistful, autobiographical finale, that maybe takes a bit longer than some of the others to grab you, but I found myself singing that one over and over to myself in Spalding town centre, but then I've never really stopped singing Andy Xport songs. Like Angelo Gravity, Andy just writes songs that stay in your head.

Andy Xport has always had the ability to write catchy, sometimes witty songs about not necessarily cheery subjects, and his trademark has always been lively tunes combined with his poignant vocals. You look at the lyrics, and you are expecting hardcore punk or death metal! But this is a tuneful collection of counter culture songs - 21st Century style. The full colour accompanying lyric sheet is also impressive, with some amusing, disturbing artwork, photos and snippets. The noble Man's Hate monkey (time for a T-shirt) makes an appearance on the CD label.

- P. R.

Track List

1. Widow six seven
2. Brave neu world
3. Madonna bought my babies
4. Bite back
5. Consume
6. He's armless
7. Sexed up
8. Royal fellowship of death
9. God's on our side not yours
10. Internet warriors
11. Kisses never lie
12. Better class of yob