Album Review: Cockney Rejects - "Power Grab"

 

2022 seems to be the year of punk bands saying adieu and in the wake of both the UK Subs and the Vibrators putting out their final albums this year, this new effort from streetpunk veterans the Cockney Rejects is also being billed as their last. When the Rejects first broke into the charts, they were tipped as the band to pick up the torch from the then-on-their-last-legs Sham 69 but after two albums of brutally raucous streetpunk, they made a bit of a left turn as the oi well started to get poisoned by far right boneheads, going full on Motorhead-style headbanger metal before sliding into inactivity in the mid-'80s and eventually making a comeback around the turn of the millennium.

I was a bit sceptical about which version of the Rejects we'd be getting for this album but on the evidence of the shoutalong We Were Never Bothered and the full on assault of Paper Tiger, the answer appears to be taking the best bits of each with Jeff Turner's unmistakeable East End bark being backed up by Mickey Geggus' full on Eddie Clarke style riffing. Same Ol' Same Ol' kicks in sounding like the Who's Won't Get Fooled Again in 16-hole DM's before turning into a full-on stomp which could almost be primetime Slade while Up For The Fight has a similar floor-stomping feel to it before Stab In The Back kicks in with a big monster of an AC/DC style riff.

I think the most satisfying thing about Power Grab is that all too often down the years, the Rejects have often struggled to properly reconcile the two sides to their sound so it's great to hear them properly nailing it here with the riffed up crunch of 40 Years Undefeated and That Thing We Do comfortably sitting next to the punk aggro of Mug (You're A Long Time Dead) and Cold Light Of Day. There's even a few curveballs such as My Heart Ain't In It which almost veers into power-pop territory and Power Grab's quiet/loud dynamic. Covers of the old Stray Cats rockabilly classic Runaway Boys and a surprisingly faithful run through Tom Petty's Learning To Fly also show that the group are putting the added versatility that four decades in the game has given them to good use.

Honestly, I'd put this down as the best Cockney Rejects album since the first two and that's high praise indeed. Those who've stuck with the band through thick and thin will find plenty to reward them here and for those just discovering the band, this isn't a bad place to start at all. If Power Grab does turn out to be the Rejects' swansong then rest assured they've most definitely gone out on a high. 

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑 (8/10)

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