The last album I had from Percy was ‘Seaside Donkeys’ back in 2020 and bloody fine it was too. With ‘Monorail’ they have taken their punk roots onwards and it feels almost like the transition from Punk into New Wave and sometimes in reverse!
Imagine, if you will, the punk sensibilities of Johnny Rotten or Joe Strummer crossed with Magazine’s avant-sneer and then throw into the mix the Surfaris, Dick Dale and Russ Meyer.
They are exciting, exhausting and invigorating all at once.
The lineup is the same as before - Colin Howard (Guitars and lead vocals) and Andy Wiles (Bass) and Paula Duck on Synths and Jason Wilson on Drums - but, as you might imagine, their talents have developed.
Andy Wiles bass playing is low down and dirty while Jason Wilson’s drumming is explosive and cymbal laden, a force ten gale behind Colin’s snotty and angst driven vocal and riffy guitar playing. Paula crates some wonderful texture on synths and it saves the band’s sound from being too ‘punky’.
I really enjoyed ‘What Lez Said’, ‘Rock-A-Hula’ with its fifties surf vibe and especially the Stranglers-esque ‘Midnight On Broadway’ but there isn’t any rubbish here and the whole album was a delight from start to finish. The new single 'ICU' is a great example of the album's theme of the world-wide lockdown and peoples frustration.
These four are clearly able musicians and they prove, once more, that you can make punk musical.
