Those of you who pine for the days of yesteryear, when outsiders like Ian Dury could defy everybody’s expectations and top the UK Top 40, could do a lot worse than check out this, the sixth album by Melbourne’s Cool Sounds.
The Blockheads are seemingly a constant reference point for this band, and the tracklisting on Like That comes across like a veritable ‘who’s who’ of coolness. Which, with a name like Cool Sounds, is probably to be expected, I guess.
‘6 or 7 More‘ is as though the aforementioned backing band has teamed up with Tom Tom Club circa ‘Wordy Rappinghood‘ and is an absolute delight, and that’s followed by the glitchy Talking Heads-like ‘Hello, Alright, You Got That?‘, with a vocal that largely takes its cue from ‘Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick‘, at least in the verses. But, crucially, Cool Sounds make it their own without ever coming across as a pale imitation of the real McCoy.
It’s impossible to keep your feet still while Like That plays. In fact, it had such an effect on me in that respect while I was cooking a pasta dish that I very nearly knocked the scalding hot saucepan all over myself as a result. Thankfully I just rescued it in time, so the band have narrowly avoided my demand for compensation…
Seriously though, this is a highly enjoyable album, chock full of nods to a whole plethora of past artists, often from the 1980s (The The, Lloyd Cole and Suicide are all suggested at various times by the structure of these compositions) and even the ones that seem, initially, to be more pedestrian, eventually get under your skin and you realise what a work of art they are. Both ‘Built To Last‘ and ‘Magic Trick‘ fall into this category, slinky and smooth but not ones you would expect to ingrain themselves in your brain too deeply. But they totally do. And so do all the others!
So if you’re looking for something that sounds fresh and new, yet has its roots firmly in the classiest acts of the post-punk era, with an irresistible beat that pushes a little later into the 1990s, then Cool Sounds are definitely a band for you. Thoroughly enjoyable stuff.
