ALBUM REVIEWS

The Paper Chase NOW YOU ARE ONE OF US SOUTHERN RECORDS @www.vanguard-online.co.uk The Paper Chase are serious art-rockers and this is a serious piece of art-rock. Then again, it’s a bunch of po-faced post-punkers camping up a horror movie! The title tips us off that this is a concept album – hacking around with the idea of being in a zombie movie. From the opening clipped phone conversation to the twisted song titles and overwrought delivery, it ties up into a tense package. Paranoic twitches feature large and the music bumps and starts. The vocals remind me frequently of late seventies / early eighties LA weirdoes Devo but the lyrics have a darker sense of humour. “The ugly, the unclean, will f*ck the unhappy”, opines one ditty. Later on, “Into the oven you go” is repeated over and over as guitars cycle and siren. Pianos are violently assaulted and climactic thumps abound in this startled sea of anguish. Paranoid tunes about being ‘got’ by zombies (or is it just the workaday world) alternate with crazed themes for the eaters of brains. Is it a zombie story or a metaphor for the way the military-industrial complex eats the soul? The album is full of the theatrical strictures and conceits that are the language of the art-school musician and it’s done with aplomb. Not something that really did ‘it’ for me but worth a couple of listens, nonetheless. Ross McGibbon www.southern.net Email Links & Comments to the editor Check the latest album releases