Audio CD review:
Ballboy - A Guide For the Daylight Hours

Ballboy - A Guide For the Daylight Hours

Band: Ballboy Title: A Guide For the Daylight Hours Rating: Release Date: 2003-08-12 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: Avant Garde Music 2: Where Do the Nights of Sleep Go When They Do Not Come to Me 3: You Can't Spend Your Whole Life Hanging Around With Arseholes 4: I Wonder If You're Drunk Enough to Sleep With Me Tonight 5: I Lost You, But I Found Country Music 6: A Europewide Search for Love 7: Something's Going to Happen Soon 8: Nobody Really Knows Anything 9: Sex Is Boring 10: Meet Me at the Shooting Range 11: All the Records on the Radio Are Shite 12: A Man's a Man for a' That

Mediocre, probably from trying too hard... To wit, first and foremost, Robin Hitchcock. Trying to hard to emulate what are obviously very profound influences on these lads. Definitely. Try as ye may, you won't be able to match his wit, lyricism or ability for clever banter. The second, early Violent Femmes. Trust me, the influence is there as well. The sort of self-depricating, slightly off-kilter humor that the VF's were so known for, and which got me through so much of my early adolescence. Third, The Beautiful South - risen from the fall-out of what were once The Housemartins. Pick anything by them, pay particular attention to the black-humor within the lyrical content, as well as the poppiness of the music and you'll see the strive by these lads to match it. What is perhaps fourth, fifth and sixth all mish-mashed in some great jumbo stew, are the apparent tendencies for appreciation of Jarvis Cocker, early Morrissey (though not quite as morbid or melancholic) early Elvis Costello (though without the pop-sensibility) and, I don't know, take your pick of someone else (say, for instance, Tim Booth and the lads from James). The bottom line is that these boys are good at what they do. But, if it hadn't been done 20 years previously (and done much better mind you), this would be absolutely novel and earth-shattering. As it is, it just amounts to a stalwart "good. " "Good" for listening to as you pine over a few pints of McEwan's, but beyond that, nothing that will be with you a very long time now from now. You can see a complete list of all Ballboy discography, or go back to the Ballboy tabs