Released 7 Mar, Wall Of Sound Records 

Mongrel are an indie supergroup made up of members of some of the most prominent bands plying the guitar led trade in the UK today.  Led by ‘The Reverend’ John McClure (the self anointed lead singer of Reverend And The Makers) and comprising former Arctic Monkey Andy Nicholls, Babyshambles’ Drew McConnel and a smattering of the countries foremost rappers and MC’s, here was a collective that, on the surface, promised much.


It came out that they were going to give their album ‘Better Than Heavy’
away with The Independent.  More good news! They clearly wanted to do things a bit differently, and a bout of boundary pushing is always welcome.  It
was only on reading some of McClure's choicer qoutes that some worry set in.  In amongst all the good vibes- and this was a band that played gigs in fans' living rooms- was a lot of cod political talk about how they "are going to take the power back" and that there is "a lack of rebels in this generation." This was on immediate concern; the only thing more tedious than an average
musician who thinks that their every action has to backed by a wave of tedious political bombast, is an average musician who thinks his music's going to change the world.  But still, pedigree’s pedigree (boom boom),
and The Independent is one of this isle’s few readable papers so 2 of the
Queen’s grubbier pounds were handed over. 


And whaddya’ know, my head swung low. Yes it had come free-rendering the
phrase ‘waste of money’ frustratingly redundant- but it was still disappointing.  It fulfilled all the sixth form stereotypes it threatened to.  Opener Barcode’s chorus goes ‘45681950/ You’re a number/ You’re a barcode/got your details all on file/ a commodity you can quantify’.  Yes there’s a little bit of clever rhymery there, but it smacks horribly of a pompous 17 year old Hard-Fi fan locked in his room and masturbating too much..


The tone doesn’t change much, and a general disaffection for a society that- shock horror!- wants to make money is the prevailing message.  Of course
this isn’t anything new, but the brusque righteous tone made me yearn for a
song that wasn’t saying something, you know, big.  It seems as a whole they’ve decided that everything in the UK is shit, other than them, and
therefore they are well within their rights to talk about it a lot.  ‘Lies’ really takes this to the edge with its chorus of ‘the whole country is full of lies/you’re all gonna die and die like flies/ I don’t trust you anymore/ Or What you’re saying.  Horrible.

     
Again, these lines are sung by The Reverend, and it’s a shame that he feels the need to dictate each song with these wet declarations because the rapping throughout is pretty great, and only watered down by his whining preachy tones.  This is especially true on ‘Hit From The Morning Sun’ which is a
storming track with some uncompromising rapping from Pariz1, until he rears his floppy Mohican for the chorus, sounding like a particularly limp Liam Gallagher in love song mode (and we all know how painful that is).  The same goes for ‘The Menace’ which has a lazy West Coast feel and some solid and clever verses from Lowkey until McClure taints everything with his awful rapping of ‘fundamentally/you’re a fundamentalist’. 


The musicianship throughout is actually very good, as it veers from grime to West Coast via funk.  The bass is consistently varied and strong, especially on ‘Act Like That’, which sounds like the more intelligent British relatives of D12 all having a go.  It’s one of the strongest songs; somewhat unsurprisingly it doesn’t feature McClure.


 This is a crying shame, and leads me to think that without him there’s
potentially a very good album here.  Then again he’s clearly the big dog on the project so it probably wouldn’t have happened without him, so some repsect is due his way for that. I suppose.


 Maybe the rest of them can try and find a leader who doesn’t insist on acting like a self-important tosser and inserting tritely written chorus’s into every song (Damon Albarn anyone?). But whatever happens ,now or in the future, this is most definitely an opportunity lost.

 Is Kai being unfair? Are there a lack of rebels in this generation? Is McClure the man to lead us into a new era of caring yet rebellious behaviour?????

Posted In Album Reviews, Mar 10 2009. Words - Kai