Album Review: Yur Mum - "Tropical Fuzz"

 

Regulars on the London scuzz scene for a couple of years, the first thing that's probably apparent is that Yur Mum have arguably the worst band name since Does It Offend You, Yeah? But if you can get past that then there's plenty here to enjoy about their second full album.

The group take the old White Stripes guitar-and-drums-only format and drag it into almost Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs style heaviness territory with the fuzzed up riffs and pounding drums on opener Banana Republic setting the manifesto out in fine style followed by the swirling tribal rhythms of the title track.

There's a bit of a latent grunge influence hanging over this album as well - certainly Kiss And Tell has a definite hint of Mudhoney about it while the rumbling JJ Burnel style bass on Dig Deep and the grinding Sweatshop adds a scuzziness to the sound which suits it well. It's noticeable as well that the group take a bit more of a methodical approach to the songs on the second half of this album with the thudding heaviness of Black Rainbow and Crazy almost going into stoner rock territory (although you'd never confuse the angry raging vocals with that genre).

I was pleasantly surprised by this album - Yur Mum have taken a few well worn templates and blended them together to produce something that's not just different from the crowd but quite intoxicating as well. Like that band name or hate it, it's something we'd better get used to because on this evidence Yur Mum are a group who may well be on the cusp of something big here.

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑 (8/10)

Comments

  1. Unknown6 February 2022 at 21:02

    Good review and can't agree more; fab band; fantastic album that brings together a number of genres which they mold int their own! This one is a keeper that is for sure!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A brief return from the dead...

Image
  Yup, we're back. Don't all get excited at once. I’d been toying with the idea of doing an end of year list again this year and after a lot of umming and aahing eventually decided to go for it. As with last year, inevitably there were bumps along the way. As of the start of December, I thought this list would be around 40 albums but inevitably reading other people’s lists pointed me towards a bunch of stuff that had passed me by earlier in the year. Plus of course there’s always a few teasing buggers who put stuff out at the last possible moment. So 40 became 50 which became 60 which finally became 70. You lucky people. Actually though, reading through this list, the main thing that strikes me is that I think this might be the most musically varied end of year list that Nite Songs has ever done. From gentle acoustics through acclaimed indie veterans to punk thrash and good old fashioned scuzzy rock ‘n’ roll via some decidedly unexpected diversions (industrial folk music? Check...
Read more

Garbage Days Revisited #90: Soho Roses - "The Third And Final Insult" (1989)

Image
  "If you won't love me then I'll find someone who will!"  - Soho Roses  - So Alone The Soho Roses were a classic case of right band, wrong time. If they'd broken on to the scene in the last few years then they'd have had a ready made audience on the 21st century power pop scene and probably be regulars at Some Weird Sin and similar club nights in the Smoke. The reality? They broke through towards the tail end of the '80s and got lumped in with the dying embers of the Soho glam scene, leaving behind one sadly underappreciated album and a few EP's before self-combusting. In a way, I sort of see the Roses as a British version of Enuff Z'Nuff. Not so much in terms of their sound but more of the fact that they were a group crowbarred in with glam who weren't really a natural fit there and kind of paid the price for it - I've always thought Enuff Z'Nuff sounded more like a Britpop band with flashbomb guitars than a hair metal band. Oh sure, ...
Read more

Garbage Days Revisited #19 - The Dictators - "Go Girl Crazy!" (1975)

Image
  "Set me free, I might know better when I'm older but till then..."  - The Dictators  - Weekend By some distance the oldest album we've featured in this column so far, I very nearly went for the Dictators' 2001 comeback album DFFD  for this feature similar to what I did with the New York Dolls GDR article a couple of weeks back but after a bit of umming and ahhing, I decided it really had to be the group's 1975 debut Go Girl Crazy!  just because it's arguably the great trailblazing US punk album that everyone's forgotten about. I guess that you could almost say that if the Ramones were the Sex Pistols of US punk then the Dictators were kind of like the Eddie & The Hot Rods in that they crashlanded just that one year too early to really reap the punk whirlwind when it took off in 1976-77 but if you listen to Go Girl Crazy! , it's got the fingerprints of a lot of bands who'd come along soon afterwards on it, especially da Bruddas. The big ...
Read more