Album Review: Not Again Cribbins God Save The King #2 (Number VIII)
By God Save The King
Everyone knows that our so-called national ‘anthem’ isn’t a patch on ‘La Marseillaise’, with its immediate exhortation to the ‘children of the Fatherland!’ that ‘the day of glory has arrived!’ Well, children (and adults), the day of glory has arrived on this side of the channel. God Save The King’s second album Not Again Cribbins God Save The King #2 (Number VIII) is finally here, 11 years after their debut. Empires have risen and fallen in that time. Hundreds of music genres (none of them good) have come into being since God Save The King last blessed us with an auditory collection. Indeed, without wanting to write a needlessly hyperbolic review for clicks, it’s almost as if God Save The King have come to save us.
The album begins with the single ‘Another Hero Is Dead’, which was reviewed by this dear magazine last March. It’s an uproarious list song to add to the list of, er, list songs. Its lyrics, if you can refer to them as such, are entirely comprised of the names of dead famous dead people. It’s a mass eulogy delivered with the vim of Talking Heads-era David Byrne, and I was especially pleased to hear the whole band holler the name of Worcestershire’s finest, Rik Mayall. If God Save The King were a sitcom, they’d be The Young Ones: punks having a laugh and never forgetting their influences.
Second single from the album, ‘In Stereo’, has a chorus so catchy it makes ‘Happy Birthday’ sound as esoteric as Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor. Coincidentally, new single ‘Johann’ is inspired by said composer, who five years ago was named the greatest composer of all time. If only God Save The King had got their act together sooner, the German baroque legend may have been nudged off his throne.
On ‘Christmas Nights’, Pete Adams (he of the likewise tremendous Hey You Guys) yelps, ‘What if he finds me lying awake? / I can hear the footsteps on the roof!’ If you’ve been searching for a song that makes Santa sound as frightening as Freddy Krueger, you’re in luck. The combination of marching drums and acoustic guitar at the start of ‘Sad State of Affairs’ is one of several moments in the album that reminded me of the too-fleeting-and-brilliant Pete and the Pirates. The spiky guitar and band-in-unison vocals on ‘Skoda’ is another. ‘Ronkswood To Saint-Tropez’ is a title to make the most hardened Half Man Half Biscuit fan doff their cap in respect and a song about escape so propulsively joyous that Bruce Springsteen would turn green with envy if/when he hears it.
Not Again Cribbins God Save The King #2 (Number VIII) is as refreshing and daft as those heated napkins you get after a curry. It’s also full of love for people, places, memories, and ideas. God Save The King are so creative, you could give them three random words as a starting point and within the hour they’d write a national anthem as urgent and memorable as ‘Mr Brightside’. Here are three non-random words: buy; album; now.
By: Neil Laurenson