45%
Gob Squad—Watch the Cripple Dance (2008)
Details
Mixed and produced by Jacob Bredahl at Smart in Hard Studio. Mastered by Ziggy at Zigsound. Words and music by Gob Squad. Album concept and album by Anders Ladegaard.
Band
Remarkably, the album doesn’t list the band members. How punk is that! One website lists them as:
- Thomas Bredahl—Guitar and vocals
- Anders Albrektsen —Guitar and vocals
- Jimmy Nedergaard — Bass
- Soeren Jensen — Drums
Another as: Thomas, Stauning, Terp, Sogge. Who knows?! Their website isn’t available either.
Tracks
- Unconscious souls
- The tyranny in good intents
- Stop pretending
- The white flag help up high
- The reason…
- Same old street
- Stand up and fight
- Vacuum of my own
- Time to be
- Reflection of youth
- Watch the cripple dance
Review
When the first track on this album from modern Danish punksters Gob Squad bounced out of my speakers my initial fears about this album were put to rest. Well, for the first 3′ 24″ at least.
‘Unconscious souls’, that opening track, is a tremendous song, and one of my favourite tracks from this project. It has a fantastic guitar hook that bounces along throughout the entire track, taking everything and everyone. The song carries a catchy melody, it has dynamics and movement, and the vocals are sung (not shouted). The perfect pop-rock song.
Sadly, though the album gradually goes down from there. Track two, ‘The Tyranny of good intents’ almost carries an element of the same riff as its predecessor. Track three ‘Stop pretending’ has a disco feel and kind of lost me when the shouting began. The next track ‘The white flag held up high’ begins with pounding drums that put me in mind of early Adam and the Ants.
By this point, however, it’s all become rather punk-by-numbers. The songs morph from one to the next and begin to sound a little same-y, and for me this style of half-shouted vocals just doesn’t work for me. Instead, I find myself returning again and again to track one and wondering what could have been.
Conclusion
I haven’t come across many albums like this, where really I like just one song. But I’m happy with that, to be honest. Artists are free to do what they want, to carve their own path, to play what they like. I respect that. I love their first track, the rest to my ears is mostly disposable.
For that reason I will need to mark the review score fairly low. But, Gob Squad for that first track I thank you. So you get a score that’s the same as my favourite number. That’s got to count for something.
My review score: 45%
Video
The video of my favourite track from the whole album, “Unconscious souls” by Gob Squad.