Bluesbunny used to work in Livingston where the Munchkins are from. It is the kind of place that you are always happy to leave. The endless roundabouts don't make it easy however. This album, in some ways, reminded us of all those roundabouts.
A brief inspection of the back cover of this album showed promise. The rather unusual selection of song titles interested us ("Sea Shanty and the Wham Bam Hoojie Poojie Sminky Pinky Doogle-Widgets and Skimponks" ?) so it was with some anticipation that Bluesbunny pressed the play button. "Not a Low Calorie Food" crashes out the speakers with worrying echoes of hardcore metal. You've got to set the scene, we suppose. "The Long and Winding Calder Road" is rather more promising with some bizarre lyrics and a screeching riff before descending into a satisfying maelstrom of noise. "Bagga Bagga" likewise mixes up weird noises with some Celtic flavoured guitar to good effect. "Little Green Men" starts (or should that be Strats) off surf style before sticking its head repeatedly in the bass bin but is nonetheless compelling. "Making My Eyes Bleed" is more conventional Goth metal and will definitely encourage you to turn that volume right up. This album took a while to review. The first play just did not highlight anything special but, being dedicated reviewers, we gave it a few more plays and the good points came to the fore.
This album is not without imagination or energy. However, it does rather lack direction and has therefore a tendency to loop round itself in that prog-rock kind of way and it also has to be said that the songs work best when they abandon the metal riffs and concentrate on the singing. That being said, Bluesbunny quite liked this one and this band does show promise so we hope that they will abandon the clichés and gain the confidence to find their own sound. Certainly worth a listen.