Album Review: The Enemy – ‘We live and die in these towns’

ukevents.net · Joined: 15 Dec 2003 Posts: 2517

The Enemy – ‘We live and die in these towns’

From selling TV’s in a dingy West Midlands city, to singing songs about selling TV’s in a dingy West Midlands city. I know which is more glamorous and I know which I’d rather, and it doesn’t involve fake smiles, and a robotic like existence hidden behind the rat race suit. The truth is that a high proportion of the British public could probably have wrote this debut album, but the difference is that the majority prefer to accept & forget or throw a plate of warmed up pork chops against the wall mid moan to a content un-ambitious wife. Not these three nineteen year old working class lads however. They had the guile, vision and nous to use their environment as inspiration for fame, fortune, plane tickets and a minimum of two years promiscuous sex with groupies of their choosing… each to their own I guess?
The album appropriately enough kicks off with ‘Aggro’ a Horrors sounding tune about kicking off. Judging by their opening line of ‘call the police, cos things are getting ugly’ Tom Clarke and co have seen some pretty heavy s*** on the scum stained streets of nightime ‘Cov’. Then comes the bands anthem and second single ‘Away from here’. Unless you’re deaf or a mute it’s impossible not to sing along with the chorus and the lyrics help typify the whole feelings of the album and his not so previous 9 to 5 lifestyle. ‘I’m so sick sick sick and tired/of working just to be retired/I don’t want to get that far/I don’t want your company car/promotions aint my thing/name badges are not interesting’. Most of the tracks convey the same message to a slightly different sound or catchy hook. The mournful ‘We’ll live and die in these towns’ speaks for itself, ‘It’s not OK’ calls for society to ‘Stop living your life by the alarm/that wakes you up at eight’ and ‘This song’ nails the evolution of an ever increasing population of youngsters born into dead end towns/cities, ‘Half the kids that aren’t pushing prams/ are now pushing pills to boys and girls that are half their age’.
It’s fair to say that with so much disgruntled talk of their hatred for routine, boredom and monotony that the album and its obvious theme could be described as a contradiction, but despite the word content appearing repetitive, the musical sound changes more than a Pete Doherty court date. Clarke’s voice and vocal swagger may sound like he’s had eight too many JD’s and coke and has four mellows crammed in his gob but it’s strangely Moorish. There’s no attempt to hide the bands heavy Jam/early Oasis influence throughout and as the album progresses so does the inclusion of a more varied instrumental awakening. Never further apparent with the addition of violins in the albums conclusion ‘Happy birthday Jane’.
It’s mildly disturbing that considering their tender age for a first attempt it sounds so good and finished. If rebellion against their environment was the inspiration then where do the enemy go next now they’ve escaped it? Presumably sex, drugs and rock n roll is the obvious route. But wherever they go from here I know I’m off to pen an angry LP about a life of similarity to feed my dreams for a better life. Why not it successfully worked for them?

Written by Simon for UKEvents.net