Album Review: The Len Price 3 - "Ip Dip Do"

 

The Len Price 3 remain one of arguably the British music scene's best kept secrets. Blasting out of the Medway a couple of decades ago, they hit their stride with their excellent second album Rentacrowd and have hardly looked back in terms of quality since even if they've remained very much a cult band.

It's pretty clear from the opening ninety second blast of garage rock aggression Chav Squad that the group are very much on form here - She Came From Out Of The Sun has an almost I Can See From Miles style feel to it albeit a much more urgent and compact version before Mr Spong's Miraculous Leap comes on like a garage rock version of Ogden's Nut era Small Faces.

Waiting For The Trouble To Come drops things down a notch with a more downbeat reflective feel led by 12 string acoustic guitar before Bag Of Bones whacks the aggression back up with a suitably scuzzy bastardisation of the You Really Got Me riff. Billy The Quid is a Kinks-style rave-up before the sinister Ready To Cry leads into the album's longest track, the four minute Spoil The Gloom which has a gentle psychedelic feel reminiscent of Blur's more thoughtful moments during their Britpop phase.

From thereon out, it's mostly sharp two minute garage punk blasts like Charlie and the Stranglers-esque I Can't Hear A Thing (albeit with the odd more reflective moment like Raven At My Window, Strange Times and the Dr Feelgood style harmonica honking Bad Vibe Machine mixed in there) but the fact is that while the Len Price 3 may tread a very well worn set of influences, they do it with an urgency and energy that grabs your interest and won't let go. And especially among the more retro-minded bands of this day and age, both among the garage rock fraternity and elsewhere, that's more of a rarity than you might think. Overall, this is 15 tracks and 33 minutes of hard-hitting, lean, fat-free energy which'll give you a much needed spike to your consciousness when you need it. Good stuff.

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑 (8/10)

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