Bloody Wildhearts copycats. Ooops, sorry, wrong review. Clam Abuse. Yeah. Let's look at this one in all honesty shall we? If it weren't some bloke known as Ginger doing half the stuff on this, then you probably wouldn't give it the time of day. I probably wouldn't. I mean, it's a magpie's nest of pop songs, riffs, melodies and all that malarky. Halfinched and then welded back together like some musical Frankenstein. The music is pop, there are dance, techno and europop beats. So, for everyone going on about how genius this is (because it's the work of Ginger), well I wonder if the open mindedness will extend beyond this. Because if you admit that you like the songs here, then there's no reason probably why you should ever say that pop music is crap.

I mean, Message To Geri is europop. Yes, it is catchy, but by anyone else, I’d probably be whingeing and cringing. Unlucky In Love is country, and that sort of music does nothing for me. Sure, they may have some kind of "biting" lyrical twist to them, but musically it's what they are. And that's the sort of music that I don't normally listen to. Here I listen because it's produced by Ginger. But let's never loose sight of that. There’s also a lot of Beatles and Beach Boys influences here, with the melodies. And I guess that’s deemed a more credible influence, but once more, there’s no point me pretending I’ve ever listened to those bands. They may be great, they may be revered by musicians, but not by me. So the influence is there, but I’m not going to fall to my knees and lick his boots just because of it.

If it’s melodies you’re after, then there’s bucketloads of them on offer, from the cover of I Think I Love You you to the really rather good She’s So Taboo, which almost could be an offering from that W band. And there are times where it’s pretty hard to believe the claim that there’s absolutely no electric guitars on this album. Specially after having seen them live when ALL there was was 2 electric guitars plus the backing tapes. Still, that’s the claim, as was made in the interview that took place afterwards and will be in the next issue (see, just planting those seeds in your mind. Gotta be done.)

There’s Always Someone More Fucked Up Than You is obviously an inspirational title, if not always true (ah, you miserable sod Dave), and isn’t a bad track. But the 4 minute spank-a-thon at the end is I guess a little debatable. And no, it’s not cos I wasn’t there doing the spanking, cheeky sods. And I suppose it is better than being a hidden track. Though don’t go getting any ideas. Oh, but the samples between songs do get irritating after repeated plays.

Went to this gig for a few reasons. One is there's been a dearth of them lately, it's all quiet. Which may or may not be good for me, because work has been so busy lately I haven't had the time or felt like it. Which is another reason. Worrying in a sense. At least to me. There's a cloud of doubt hanging over the zine at least in some respects. And it’s stuff I’ve gone on about elsewhere, so I won’t bore you again (though you can read theoriginal whinge in the web version of this review.)

Now the other reason I had to go to this gig, was because after receiving a two track promo of the new Anethema album, I was so impressed with it I had to go and buy the album. Ah yeah, I just whinged about that didn't I? Yeah, but this is one of a select few. This sounded great, not just hyped well. And as it looked like I wasn't going to get a review copy, I had to buy it on the strength of the music. And so now I had to see them. And once we've dealt with Hangnail, that's what ew'll do.

Luckily, a few people who had hung back for Hangnail wander up as Anethema hit the stage, though it's still a depressingly small turnout for them. Towards the end Vincent quips "thanks. Even though there's so few, it's been a good rehersal for Bradford tomorrow where there'll be people." Humour? Attitude? You need to know the person to know, and I don't. I kinda grate when bands seem to slag the people who are actually there for the people that haven't turned up, but that's a personal bugbear. Anyway, the music is the most important thing, and although throwing a straight run of the first 5 tracks from the new album Judgement might seem to be risky, for someone like myself who has only heard that one album, it works, and works well. So we get the Paradise Lost inspired Deep, through Pitiless, Forgotten Hopes, Destiny Is Dead and the Metallica Sanitarium recalling intro of Make It Right. From there I guess it's a mixture of old and new, Angelica is in there, along with a few other oldies whose names were given but I've forgotten. There's Rory Harper song apparently, which features an incessent guitar part that actually made me think of Marillion around say the Misplaced Childhood album, which was a phenomenal album.