Review:

on 2011-09-13 CharlesMartel Said:

I could never understand why, when the headlong rush to turn indie into mainstream got underway, the Rifles got largely overlooked. I mean, plastic, second-rate bland-merchants such as Franz Ferdinand or Keane and arrogant tossers such as Razorlight got a look in on the first wave of Mainstream Indie, mainly by providing a sterile dance-able pop-rock. The Enemy led the second wave of Mainstream Indie which was more directed at disaffected urban yoof. But what about the Rifles? Their first album, "No Love Lost", was catchy, in your face and even radio-friendly (at least as far as XFM goes), so why did it get nowhere?

It can't be ability (not that a criterion like that ever impacted on mainstream success). The Rifles produce tight, fast and catchy pop music as they demonstrate on their long-ovedue follow up, "The Great Escape". Wrap this around some anthemic chanting and you have some perfectly put-together vignettes of proletarian ennui. Maybe it is the resemblance of the band, musically, to the Jam which puts people off. Well that is certainly true  but that is a charge levelled at, for instance, the Enemy and it hasn't adversely affected them.

Surely individual tracks cannot be the reason. Take the frenetic opener, possibly the best track on the album, "Science in Violence", a biting condemnation of the pointlessness of male, white, urban life. The next track, the title track, takes this theme further by looking at where it is leading, and paints a bleak picture indeed with its mixture of half-hearted advocation of community juxtaposed with depictions of the fracture of society and the breakdown of social cohesion, something which, coming from the East End of London, the band members would have been all to familiar with:

"Show a local scheme your generosity
Stand back in the shadows and be a right hand man
Buy a brand-new semi next door to the Taliban"

Musically, "The Great Escape" is a step forward from their first album. The band have diversified away from the straightforward two guitars, bass, drums, 1-2-3-4 go! Yet they still get the feet tapping and the heart racing with tracks like "The General" and the deceptively simple "Romeo and Julie". On "For the Meantime" the band even manage to start with a dolorous cello and sound remarkably like something the Beatles would have done around the time of "Revolver" or "Sgt. Pepper". And, finally, in something of a trend about to be set, as they did on "No Love Lost", the album closes with a brief hidden track.

So what is it which holds the Rifles back when others are burning up the mainstream? In truth, whereas bands like the Enemy are mere commentators on life and love, the Rifles take a more pro-active approach. They are not afraid to point the finger of blame and much of the time they point it straight at you. If your life is shit then start by looking at yourself before blaming others. Don't expect help as a right. Help yourself!

And therein lies the reason why the Rifles can continue to play tight, catchy, anthemic, urban pop-punk and still get overlooked. Bands like the Enemy just describe the disaffection from the individual's point of view, and that is something the individual who listens to them can relate to. The Rifles describe the same disaffection and alienation but from a wider, systemic standpoint. The average punter who listens to XFM and thinks that gives him street cred wants to empathise with the what not analyse the why. The Rifles are the Enemy with A Levels. That's why they are not played on the radio all the time. That's why they are, and with "The Great Escape" remain, with an enhanced reputation in my view, a cut above the rest.
Rating: 8/10