Bad Manners: Loonee Tunes!

Bad Manners: Loonee Tunes!

1980

Magnet Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Echo 4-2  2. Just a Feeling  3. El Pussycat  4. Doris  5. Spy-I  6. Tequila  7. Lorraine  8. Echo Gone Wrong  9. Suicide  10. The Undersea Adventures of Ivor The Engine  11. Back in '60  12. Just Pretendin'


Bad Manners are awesome! There's no way on planet Earth you can feel even the slightest bit bummed out while listening to these guys. I swear to you, put this on when you're feeling that ol' existential angst and you'll be too busy skanking to think about the fact that ultimately, life is just a long, slow, lonely walk to the grave! (skank. skank).

The music is British second-wave ska, but it doesn't have the punk grit of a lot of their contemporaries, like the Specials...This is more pop-oriented and the songs are light, fluffy confections. I'd say the closest point of reference is early Madness, but played even more for laughs.  But it certainly shares Madness' same good-time, carnivalesque  atmosphere and Prince Buster inspired instrumentals but Bad Manners does make the sound their own. Mostly due to their distinctly original frontman, Buster Bloodvessel (aka Fatty), who was just a big, fleshy mountain of a man...

...who invented the whole Miley Cyrus stick-your-tongue-out-all-the-time thing back when she was just a distant longing in Billy Ray's line-dancing bluejeans...

Hey, is it just me or have I been talking about Miley Cyrus an awful lot lately on this blog...Doth I protest too much? Am I really a closeted Miley fan?!?! Hmmm, let's explore this further...

Nope, it's pretty much the worst thing I've heard in my entire life. I can't believe people willingly subject themselves to this shit...There's a whole colorful world of wonderful music out there, and it drives me nuts sometimes that people will just go for the most mindless shit that is dangled in front of them. "But I like it cos it's fun!" Where does this idea that a song has be utterly retarded to be fun come from?  Screw 'em. If they're not adventurous enough to search out the good things out there, then they deserve the shit they get...Besides you and I know better, right?  Wait! This is starting to sound like anger or at minimum some sort of mild outrage! I'd better listen to some Bad Manners and get happy again!

(throws "Lorraine" back on the turntable)

Ahhh...That's better. Y'know there's a good reason there's a big sticker plastered on the front cover proclaiming, "Lorraine's on 'Ere."  "Lorraine" is not only the best song on the album, it's also one of the best songs of the whole second wave English ska movement.  The music is so bouncy,  Buster's voice is so likeable, and the lyrics are a hoot. I swear you'll hear this once and you'll find yourself singing,  "And when I find her, I'm gonna kill her, Lorraine, Lorraine, Lorraine..." for the rest of your life.

But it's not the only good song here.  They just as easily could have advertised "Just a Feeling" on the cover, which pulls off the neat trick of sounding simultaneously moody and happy. And they turn dub reggae into catchy pop on "Echo Gone Wrong," which is no easy feat either.  Plus it works as a nice chill-out track for your own Friday Night Record Party.

I'm recommending this is if you're into late 70's-early 80's two-tone, but a small caveat to those who aren't fans of "near-instrumentals" since a good chunk of the album consists of wacky instrumentals with funny phrases, sound effects or nutty chattering laid over the top, but most ska fans are into that type of thing, and besides, there's at least half an album's worth of the finest, skanking-est  pop out there...

Watch this performance of "Lorraine" and tell me you're not in love...I dare ya!