REVIEW: Flying Ant Day – ‘Do The Flying Ant’ album

 

Flying Ant Day describe themselves as a Stourbridge based beat combo, and that describes them pretty well, but not completely… They say that they take in elements of 60s beat, 70s new wave and 80s indie, but that’s not the whole story either.

The band are made up of Bodmin Moore on lead vocals, Andrew Boswell on guitar/vocals, Steve Lowe on bass and Carl Bayliss on drums.

Starting with ‘When I’m Dead’, Flying Ant Day kick straight into a 60s influenced garage groover, as advertised, which is really catchy and I like very much. ‘After You’ has more of a revival sound and could easily sit on the ‘Uppers On The South Downs’ compilation.

‘Leap While You Can’ is quite new wave, with verses in the spoken narrative and an earworm chorus with 60s sha-la-la-la backing vocals. This is followed by ‘Bad Stars or the Wrong Kind of Moon’ which, once again, brings together the new wave/revival sound with a 60s vibe, and again it gets straight into your head and stays there.

Track 5 is entitled ‘Escape to Barmouth’ and is more medium paced, with a modern late 50s pop feel. ‘Glen Marnoch’ is a whisky song and is another great lyric - lovely stuff. Next up is ‘Drop Me A Line’, which has a bit of an REM feel to the music, another catchy number and another really good lyric. There’s a pattern forming here.

‘The Night The Drifters All Came Back’ starts with a modern take on the Stax pumping bass sound and continues on in indie fashion akin to Yeah Jazz! This is followed by ‘Kirsten’ which is another new wave/60s influenced song that bounces along nicely. ‘Joanne’ is a choppy/pumping number that slows down and then builds back up again.

We then get the title track, ‘Do The Flying Ant’, which is a tom-tom heavy song telling us how to do the dance and features a nice bit of 50s rockabilly guitar that lends itself well to the song as it rocks out. This will put a smile on your face.

The album ends with ‘Midnight Baby’ which is reminiscent of a revival band playing an old 60s song and, for some reason, has me thinking of Van Morrison’s ‘Them’.

This is a really enjoyable album of instantly accessible songs, unique lyrics, good musicianship and fun – do yourself a favour and get yourself a copy from flyingantday@hotmail.com or www.facebook.com/flyingantday15 You won’t be disappointed.