Album Review: The Spitfires - "Life Worth Living"

 

When the Spitfires first emerged in 2014, they were heralded as the main figureheads of the latest incarnation of the Mod Revival (mainly on the back of frontman Billy Sullivan's vocal similarities to Paul Weller I suspect) only for no other bands to really follow them into the mainstream. Life Worth Living is their fourth album and their first since signing to Acid Jazz records and also sees them slimmed down to a power trio (something which I suspect won't help those omnipresent Jam comparisons to go away). Their previous effort, 2017’s Year Zero was a bit of a disappointment to these ears with the band sounding as if they’d stalled a bit creatively so it’s pretty much put up or shut up time with this one.

To be fair, it gets off to a good start with the northern soul indebted Start All Over Again with Sullivan decrying the lack of voices pointing the way out of dark times for the youth of the country ("Yesterday's heroes all just keep their heads down") over a ska-style guitar line and some lush strings. The chugging riff underpinning the electronica on Can't Be Done is a good one as well but things come unstuck a bit on the title track which has a ska rhythm reminiscent of the Specials but unfortunately it sounds more than anything like a bit of a pale imitation of Hall, Goulding and co's Encore album from last year. Meanwhile the politicised plastic soul of Tear This Place Right Down is less Jam and more Style Council (but, y'know, there's worse things to be) while How Could I Lie To You? is okay but if you're a certain age then it's a bit difficult to listen to without the unwelcome image of Hue & Cry or Living In A Box entering your head.

The sinister Kings & Queens (owing a sly nod to the Clash's Guns Of Brixton but not so as to be too bleedin' obvious) thankfully gets things back on track but (Just Won't) Keep Me Down, similar to the title track earlier, just rips off the Specials a bit too obviously (Gangsters specifically). Tower Above Me is an enjoyable slice of northern soul stomp but Have It Your Way drifts dangerously close to MOR electro-pop before the heartfelt Make It Through Each Day at least signs this one off on a high note.

Life Worth Living is a frustratingly inconsistent album - it shows fleeting promise but it's stopped from really shining by a combination of the band sticking a bit too closely to their rather obvious influences for their own good in places and also by slight over-production - I mean, we're not talking Struts levels of drowning everything in superfluous studio gloop or anything like that thankfully but for a band who are raging against the injustices of youth, the addition of all those layers of electronica, synths and orchestration in places kind of blunts the message a bit here and there. Credit to the Spitfires for still being out there trying but with this album they've missed the boat by a frustratingly narrow margin yet again.

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌓🌓🌓🌓🌓🌓🌑🌑🌑🌑 (6/10)

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