Released 18/05/2009


The Black Penny Remedy is a bunch of London types from disparate backgrounds who mix rock, punk, European folk and ska into short, punchy songs firmly set in a world of poverty, crap jobs, down-market boozers and unhappy relationships. 


Main vocalist Keith M Thompson inhabits a persona similar to kitchen sink pop legend Ian Dury, taking wry glances at lives lived on the grubby fringes of society. But where Dury had dexterous wordplay and surreal gallows humour to keep his narratives engaging, Thompson exhausts his main angle – our lives are ugly, we are poor – with the album’s opening salvo “95 Charing Cross Road” and then chases his artistic tail for much of the album’s remainder.  


The assumption (and, to be fair to Thompson, it is a common one) seems to be that the lives of errant, possibly criminal, borderline alcoholic people are inherently interesting and worthy of almost limitless excavation. But this only works if one can keep finding interesting angles on which to hang stories of dissolution and bravado – as both Morrissey and Guy Ritchie could attest.  


Sadly, much of No One’s Fault…sounds like less-than-classic Moz album Southpaw Grammar clumsily spruced with some cod-oomph gypsy flourishes. The rock, the music's main ingredient, is strictly of the pub variety and far too many songs dissolve into a rudimentary kneesup.       


The one real exception is “Hit Hard, Aim Low” which comes on like a lost crowd-pleaser from The Rocky Horror Show and features Thompson delivering rapid, witty, skewed advice on how to survive on his mean streets. It manages to mix breezy pop, soul and glam rock riffing. Why it’s languishing all the way back at track seven is a mystery.  


What this album sorely needs is variety – both musically and lyrically. Happily, there’s enough here to suggest that TPBR will go on to explore the more interesting alleyways and avenues on their creative stomping ground.  

www.thepennyblackremedy.com

Posted In Album Reviews, May 12 2009. Words - Richard