The Ordinary Boys: How To Get Everything You Ever Wanted In Ten Easy Steps
Preston has survived a year of Chantelle to come up with an impressive third album
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Monday, 23, Oct 2006 09:10
B-Unique, October 23rd.
In a nutshell.
Polished, incongruous, poppy, capricious, celebrity
What's it all about?
There is every possibility that had Preston not entered the Big Brother house last year, this latest offering by the Ordinary Boys may never have appeared. Happily it has, and How To Get Everything You Ever Wanted In Ten Easy Steps will have a great number of people bopping along to their iPods at a feverish and credible rate. This clientele may be someone different to the followers of previous Preston-penned records. They may read various celebrity weeklies and be more interested in Chantelle's new hair extensions, but this shouldn't detract from the album that the band has produced. It's polished, succinct and at times thoroughly impressive.
The single Lonely At The Top sounds like late Blur, mixed with the cheekiness that has come to define Preston's lyrics. Nine2Five sounds just as great as when it was released and I Luv U, the much talked about ballad to Ms Houghton, shows that the Ordinary Boys are capable of reproducing the form seen on Over The Counter Culture. This record does enough to erase the memories of Preston sticking up for Michael Barrymore, and George Galloway making the watching audience fell visibly sick. In fact it's rather good.
Who's it by?
The Ordinary Boys have been around for a while, first appearing on the scene in 2003, playing the small clubs before finding a real audience with their debut album Over The Counter Culture. Tunes like Seaside and Talk Talk Talk reflected a strong and fairly astute British band. That 'difficult second album' came back to haunt the band when Brassbound followed the debut with little in the way of commercial success. Boys Will Be Boys found the band a 'lad tag' which was pinned on with immense force, and Preston's music languished at the back of people's minds and at the foot of bargain bins.
Then along came Davina, Chantelle, numerous tabloid fall-outs and the re-release of Boys Will Be Boys. Suddenly the band's frontman had an image that could be packaged and sold, achieving a young and fashionable audience that they had never enjoyed. This third album aims to bring the true fans back, but retain the new found success. It could also pretty much guarantee a fourth album.
As an example.
"This is a story for all of my 'close' friends/Anonymous neighbours with stories to tell/ I didn't realize I had so many 'close' friends/ Nameless and shameless with hearsay to sell."
Preston attacks the kind of people who often crawl from the woodwork in Lonely At The Top.
Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys
There's some great singles on this record and it should achieve some notable commercial success for the band. However, the music press backlash is just around the corner and awards may be someway off.
What the others say
"The quality of these songs and the vibrancy of their delivery suggests Preston's 15 minutes aren't up just yet." Guardian
"Like it or not, Preston's appearance on Celebrity Big Brother was one of the shrewdest marketing moves in recent times." Gigwise
So is it any good?
This album delivers simple and likeable tunes to showcase Preston's well pronounced vocal, something which is often forgotten and left to the wayside. Ballad Of An Unrequited Self-Love Affair demonstrates Preston's ability to package an average Morrissey sounding song and make it his own, with The Higher The Highs borrowing more from the Jam and Clash sounding guitar pop. We've Got The Best Job Ever sounds like a title Chantelle may have brainstormed in a tea-time chat with Jade Goody, and it lives up to that perspicacious thought.
However, despite being a poor and dull track, it will no doubt be lapped up by a reasonable number of new-found fans. This is the resounding feeling of this album, it manages to avoid being an awful record, taking itself seriously in rationed and rare instances only. The surprise and frankly inexcusable inclusion of Boys Will Be Boys makes this album resemble a 'best of' for the last two years, however, despite this blatant sell-out the new material more than makes up for the feeling of being robbed. Lonely At The Top and I Luv U both prove the band's capability for producing a good single, Walking On The Faultlines also demonstrates this ably, it's no worse than the kind of song the Kaiser Chiefs win awards for.
Preston has clearly maintained a steady head through the kind of experience - with the kind of freaks - that could quite easily ruin you mind forever. This album is a stand-out success and caps off an eventful year.
7/10
Karl Pike