Warm Widow - Widower

Feckin' hell this album is great. A raw energetic tuneful blast of melodic noise from the mean streets of Manchester. The story goes that these were the demo's for a future album project but when the label heard them they decided to put them out as is. How right they were as the unsweetened approach serves the music perfectly. Its brutal lo-fi rock sitting somewhere between The Fall, Jesus Lizard and Guided By Voices. The guitars are constantly on the edge of mayhem only held together by the energetic drumming and thumping bass, but through the sludge emerge the most remarkable blasts of melody which keep your ears finely tuned throughout, it never becomes too tuneful, nor too difficult and it brings to mind the bleak inner city in which it was recorded, short blasts of sun peeking through the gap in the curtains of a darkened room. Other names that spring to mind are angry Salford noiseniks Dub Sex, the angular guitar stabs of Gang of Four, the production values recall the recent Women album. In fact this is like a bleak Northern English retort to the slightly more other worldly Women, both bands learning the lesson as provided by The Fall as you can screech and howl and make great swathes of noise but you must also have tunes and bugger me, this one does. It often recalls early Guided Voices and the vocals are very R. Pollard at times, this of course is a great thing. Highly recommended.