Album review: Milky Wimpshake – My Funny Social Crime
You gotta love Milky Wimpshake! As soon as I press play and ‘Alice Nebula’ kicks in with its bouncy, jangly guitars and ‘ba–ba-ba-ba–ba-ba–ba-ba’ chorus it brings a huge grin to my face. Pete may not have the best singing voice in the world but as he says in ‘Broken Again’ ‘I’m not a guy to give up trying’, but those jangly guitars win enough brownie points to pretty much forgive anything. And besides lyrically it’s far more accomplished than most bands can muster. Though frequently funny this isn’t a comedy album by any stretch, the songs are wry, witty observations about life and all its trials and tribulations. Pete’s failure in love does feature quite heavily, but there’s also like ‘Itchy Feet On A Tuesday Night’ about working for the man ‘they take my hours and they take my days/in exchange for the bare minimum wage’ and ‘Alice Nebula’ which seems to consist of totally unrelated couplets that are only there because they rhyme. My favourite track is the super jangly ‘Cherry Pop’ but I should point out that Milky Wimpshake are not a one trick pony when it comes to the music. No, they have a whole field of ponies (thank you Stuart Baggs); the aforementioned ‘Itchy Feet’ has a killer bass line, ‘Changing Shape’ is a violin led ballad while ‘Lorraine’ even features a glockenspiel. ‘My Funny Social Crime’ is one of those understated albums that sneaks up on you; you don’t expect much from it but as soon as you hit play it wraps it’s arms around you in a big bear hug and won’t let go! A very satisfying listen indeed. 8/10
Mark Cousens
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