The Victorian English Gentlemens Club – Watching The Burglars [Single]

This is Fake DIY Records

August 29, 2009, 02:18 PM

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Of course The Victorian English Gentlemens Club are from Cardiff and are a boy/girl combo. Their debut album came out in 2006 and in the run-up to the release of the follow-up album “Love on an Oil Rig” (great title) in mid-September here is their second single of the year 'Watching The Burglars'.

'Watching the Burglars' in short is quirkily brilliant. It is ringing, jangly art-pop with an African rhythm that could easily find a home on either Abe Vigoda’s “Skeleton” or XTC’s “English Settlement”. It manages to be fresh without being part of any scene and clearly sounds British without being parochial. Singer Adam Taylor takes the verse supported by female backing vocals plus chanted ‘Hey Hey Heys’ before both the male and female voices join force for the surging, shouted chorus. I am not sure what the track is going on about but its infectious and urgent rhythms have lodged themselves in my head and in my feet from the very first listen. B-side “Polish Worker” repeats the trick but is darker in tone with a pounding piano-riff behind its tale of immigrant worker exploitation.

If you are normally put off by the word “quirky”, try this single straightaway. Smart, arty and shiny, 'Watching the Burglars' gives me VERY high expectations for the forthcoming album.

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