Every now and then a CD pops through the door from a band that you really should have heard of before, The Electrics being a case in point. A Scottish band from the “dancing drunk around yer pint glass” school of Folk/Celtic Rock that has left this particular reviewer in a semi-conscious heap on many a Saturday night, and for that I would like to take the opportunity to thank such bands and landlords everywhere.

Anyway back to the Electrics, the rabble rousing leads off with the knees-up ‘Party Goin’ On Upstairs’, a kind of Pouges-ish / country rock romp call to arms led by a redneck fiddle exchanging leads with a breathless whistle, together driven along by a punching drum line. Damn fine start this…you can almost taste the snakebite kicking in!!

The volumes up to the ceiling now and I’m waiting for the next track to give my bouncing soles a lift around the living room, I’m not disappointed as ‘Rollin’ Home’ lets rip. The intros a swirling version of ‘Amazing Grace’ before breaking into a glorious floor-breaker of Slade type proportions with the Whistle as ever leading the way. Carries a big sound this one, due in no small part to the late Stuart Adamson guesting – Big Country being one of the best Celtic Rock bands since God first threw back the curtains.

This is what the Electrics do and do well, big noise big hook lines and even bigger choruses. Mad as it sounds it’s as if they are the bastard sons of seventies glam rock out on a drunken date with the uninvited crusties hanging around the entrance to Glastonbury, madder still – it works as well as a lock in with free Guinness on tap!

The wheels start to fall off around the same time as ‘Come Back Down’ comes out of the speakers, far to close to the Pogues to be decent boys…no I won’t go on – we’ll leave it there. ‘Yer Man McCann Can’ picks up the Magpie mantle with gusto, sounding for all the world as if Dire Straits have entered the building circa ‘Making Movies’. Mind you two turkeys out of eleven ain’t bad is it?

The rest of the album stays on track, hi-energy accordion, whistle, fiddle, big beats and hook lines strong enough to reel in a whale a good time make. All this from a CD sent to me that is SIX years old, if they’ve ironed out the plagiaristic tendencies they should be a band deserving of a lot of attention. You just know that ‘Livin’’ was a CD made by a cracking live band who happened to find themselves in a studio, I’m guessing now that if they were back in a studio they could produce a killer album. Certainly a better cover – a William Wallace look-alike playing flying a V guitar whilst surrounded by pissed off looking Vikings really is as tacky is it sounds.

October 2002

Review by Steve Davies