Credit: Found On Internet

Label: Cooking Vinyl
Release date: 9 October 2006

Who’d have thought it? The kings of carpet-shuffling, The Bluetones, are back with their fifth album, the eponymous The Bluetones.

If you weren’t around for their brilliant 1996 debut Expecting To Fly, fear not, because all the hallmarks of The Bluetones’ sound still resonate 10 years on.

Gentle Byrdsian melodies? Check. Driving major chords and rolling drums? Check. Chirpy pop songs with twee lyrics? Look no further than The King of Outer Space where frontman Mark Morriss assures us, “I’ve packed a toothbrush just in case I’m the king of outer space.”

The blueprint for The Bluetones gentle, brooding love songs has also survived the past decade and Morriss’ reedy but warm vocals are best suited on the lilting Hope and Jump and The Last Song But One.

While 99% of The Bluetones does not tell us anything we did not already know about the dogged Britpop quartet, Head On A Spike is the most intriguing song and sticks out like, well, a head on a spike. It picks up the tempo with a whir of edgy guitars while the lyrics explore the grim contradictions of ageing and still trying to fit in – an apt theme indeed.

The Bluetones and I go back a long way. I once embarrassingly exposed myself at one of their gigs – by MISTAKE – as the mosh-pit had gotten a little out of hand.  But times change, mosh-pits mellow and music moves on. The plucky Bluetones are sticking to their melodic pop guns – they better hope now is a good time to reminisce.