With nothing more than a chipped statue of Lady Godiva, Jimmy Hill's chin and a terrible inner ring road system to its name, Coventry hasn't had much to shout about since the much revered and even more lamented era of The Specials.
Hopefully the Broken Dolls are gonna change all that.
Much like fellow Midlanders Kasabian (but without the forced bravado and false Mancunian accents), Broken Dolls are welded together by a mishmash of sounds and sackload of influences, most of which can be heard on the title track itself. 'Any Other Day' sounds like John Lydon rehearsing for the role of Fagin over a collage of Duran-esque synths and Funkadelic basslines. So far so snazzy then.
Flipside 'What The Hell' is a marked departure for the band though, in that their up, up and away pop sensibilities are traded in for a more melancholic foray into 'Creep'-like Radiohead territory. Interesting, and yet strangely moribund at the same time.
-
7Dom Gourlay's Score