In the
great traditions of The Jam, this album starts with a corker of a song, ‘Top Of
The World’, that could easily be a single in its own right. A wonderfully
crafted pile-driver of a song that teases you waiting for the chorus you know
is going to come, and then introduces a great organ sound in the middle
sequence. Awesome.
Next up is
‘Throwing It All Away’ which could have been an out-take from a session by The
Chords – it’s that good. The pace continues with title track, ‘Heads Held High’,
as the album just gets better and better.
‘Vision
(From Another World)’ comes next and is a big favourite of mine. Imagine the
Inspiral Carpets playing the Purple Hearts’ version of ‘Gloria’ at the same
time as ‘Do Anything Just To Please You’ and you get the idea of this
magnificent organ driven sonic soundscape.
‘Won’t
Miss Next Time’ starts acoustically before cranking up the sound and ‘Crying’
is incredibly catchy and I am sure would get airtime on the radio.
We are
then treated to ‘No Apologies’ that has the feel of The Moment, which is a
great trait indeed, before ‘Remember The Days’ has us reminiscing whilst
singing along to this super tune.
Classic
Alert! ‘Another Putney Sunrise’ is The Past Tense’s Ray Davies moment – this needs
to be released as a single and, with the right support, would easily go Top 5.
I cannot emphasise enough what a truly great song, recording, performance this
is – worth the entry money alone.
‘Just Keep
Believing’ visits The Truth’s territory, ‘Music Is Our Key’ demonstrates the
passion of this band for their craft, whilst ‘What’s Coming Next’ takes us back
to the early days of The Truth again before we enjoy the outro of ‘Putney
Reprise’.
The vocals
on this album are saturated with passion, honesty and integrity in a similar
way to Andy Houghton’s with Yeh-Yeh, the guitar work is beautiful – I hear
something new every time I play the album, and the rhythm section is tighter
than an accountant on downers. The bass lines are almost lead lines in the same
way as Foxtons’ melodic playing, and the drums move from power to delicate
intricacies when needed.
And that
is why I rate this album so highly. As with all truly great albums, the more
you play it, the more the songs take on their own personalities and the more
things become apparent to the ear.
To
paraphrase: “Another great Past Tense album – and I’m feeling good…ooh feeling
good”.
And if you
want to feel good too, visit The Past Tense on FB and get yourself a copy: -
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