Album – Some Kind Of Urban Fulfilment -The Tacticians

Posted by admin on September 27th, 2007

First off, I have to admit I do have a soft spot for this band. I first discovered them on a podcast that played the track “London’s Alright”. In it is mentioned my old stomping ground, which never fails to bring back fond memories. I actually liked the track so much, I ordered a 7″ vinyl copy, do you remember vinyl? The lads follow up single was “Girls Grow Up Faster than Boys”, which had that similar, 80’s retro indie feel. A little while after that release the guys sent me an email to let me know they’d been signed to Setanta Records. This was great for them, but also great for us, as it meant a whole album of the Tacticians’ great songs.

The album does not disappoint. 11 tracks, with great lyrics and a musical style, that feels very raw, but also very tight and well executed. The lyrical style, reminds me a lot of the Kinks, were every song tells a story and is backed up by music that’s spot on. Many of the tracks never fail to get me tapping something, whether it’s fingers, hands, feet or any other extremities that can be tapped or shook.

Opening with “Respectfully Proceeding” this is probably one of the more radio friend tracks and is one that you’ll find yourself humming, long after it’s finished. The following three tracks “Girls Grow Up Faster than Boys”, “Hardcore Porn” and “London’s Alright” are no stranger to Tacticians’ fans, as they have all appeared on their two singles. “Hardcore Porn” is actually a pretty innocuous track, despite it’s title. For me though “London’s Alright” is the killer track, even though I’m not overly keen on the new arrangement, which varies quite a bit from the original single.

“Size” is one of those little gems, that behind the very simple title, hides a song of pure gold. “Honey You Ain’t Needed Anymore” starts off pretty laid back and gets more frenetic the further the song progresses. “Get a Move on” is the last track also featuring on one of the singles.

“Dance Like Nobody’s Watching” has an almost Elvis Costello feel to it to the music, with a Joe Strummer vocal accompaniment. In fact it was when I reached this song, that I realised that many of the vocals share a lot of similarities with Joe Strummer, which is praise indeed in my book. “Ordinary People” is a very pleasant track, but doesn’t really captivate. It’s a similar thing with “I Feel It’s Over”. In fact when I think about it more, they are very fairly laid back tracks and you very much get the feeling that the album is winding up, so maybe not a criticism as such, more an observation. Finishing up with “Town Full of Losers”, it all ends far too quickly, but man what a ride.

The only small niggle I have with the album, is when I make direct comparisons of tracks on the album, with the ones released on the two singles. Those tracks are “London’s Alright” and “Hardcore Porn” and “Girls Grown Up Faster than Boys” and “Get a Move On”. I found the production on the singles, was much nicer. Those tracks and to a certain degree the rest of the tracks on the album sound kind of muffled, when compared to the crisper and brighter sounding singles. Just a small niggle, but it’s something I keep coming back to when I play the album.

Conclusion : Production issues aside, this is still a great album, that manages to capture a great youthful spirit. They perform quite a bit, in and around London, and I can just image they’re fantastic live. Do your CD collection a favour and pick up a copy.

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