Album Details

• Artist: Wombats
• Album: A Guide To Love, Loss & Desperation
• Label: 14th Floor
• Year of Release: 2007
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: dadair on 2008-03-25

Review of Wombats Single: Backfire At The Disco

Some people have been quick to put The Wombats groundbreaking achievement of selling out the 1,000 plus Carling Academy in Liverpool, as an unsigned act. Down to the fact that Arctic Monkeys fever meant that any act with the merest hint of a swaggering indie approach, was always going to be leaped upon. Since being signed to 14th Floor records and unleashing their debut album, they have set about setting the record straight.

Matthew Murphy’s lurid and demonstrative narrative, the cock-sure strutting instrumental approach and their ill-fated romantic tale-telling is put in a nutshell in ‘Backfire At The Disco’. This latest single is bound to keep this Liverpool quartet on the airwaves.

A ‘South Central Remix’ fuzzes out a Drum N’ Bass edge, giving the gyrators more ammo for some drunken stuff strutting. However, it’s a live version of the track featuring New Order’s Peter Hook on bass duties that will capture much of the attention this time around. All that was need was Mascherano on drums, then Liverpool and Manchester would have been truly United.

User Reviews and Comments

on 2008-04-01 dscanland Said:

I am stuck on this Wombats album. It's good fun pop. Kinda like The Kooks. But I think I'm alone in liking the Kooks.
Not Rated

Review:

on 2008-03-04 joechuck_norris Said:

The Wombats are coming out of the UK disco punk scene swinging hard. On video that they posted on their myspace (in which they visit Austin, TX) they described their music as "indescribable," and called it a "mixture of many genres." I can see where they're coming from with that notion, but it's not really. They do open up with a cutesy acapella which they revisit in the reprise format at the end. It does sound rich and thorough enough to get stuck in your damn head.... but the actual opening song is a drastic change, and it's pretty much that way for the rest of the album.
On the plus, they are really good at their craft. If you want to compare, because it's inevitable, this album is what Bloc Party's follow up to Silent Alarm should've been. It doesn't come off gimmicky, it seems like a fairly genuine group of kids partying. The stand out song it "Moving to New York," which is their major debut release.
Rating: 9/10