Album review: The Singing Loins – Stuff
With a name like The Singing Loins you’d be forgiven for thinking that they were a comedy music group in the vein of the Barron Knights. Fortunately you’d be wrong, though not as wrong as the Barron Knights! For those of you not familiar with The Singing Loins fromed in 1990 and play a mix of folk and pub rock, not dissimilar to the Levellers. Lyrically the songs are ‘local’ with references to the Medway Towns and surrounding areas liberally scattered across the album, sometimes subtly and sometimes, in the case of ‘Ascending Chatham Hill’ not! ‘Stuff’ is the ninth proper release for the band and though I’m not familiar with their entire back catalogue, is a little slower than I expected having seen them live, maybe they’re getting old!
That’s not to say it’s not a good album. From the full throttle punk folk of ‘Where’s My Machine Gun’, where Chris Broderick snarls and spits ‘Love thy neighbour/do us a favour/drop down dead/you graceless piece of shite’, to the ballad ‘Friendship For Once’ a beautifully played ballad with a dirty theme, there’s plenty to enjoy. Of the tracks here the twisted ‘Another Folk Song About Death’ is far and away the best but other highlights include the raucous ‘Ascending Chatham Hill’, the Medway version of ‘Route 66’, is brilliant and witty (but NOT comedy) and ‘Any Good Englishman’. Good stuff! 7/10
Mark Cousens
Out 24th January on Damaged Goods
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