THe Wind-Up Birds

The Wind-Up Birds from Leeds, have been around bit releasing a few 7”s along the way and generally getting their stuff together. The result is a solid debut album that will get them some attention beyond the Radio 6 ghetto.

The band set out their stall with opener Good Shop Shuts; a juddering, earnest, slice of shouty pop. The vocals are high in the mix thus ensuring we hear every syllable of Paul Ackroyd’s lyrics. There’s no doubt he’s a gifted storyteller playing with images of grim estates, closed record shops, extreme nationalism, footballers etc. at times he’s shooting fish in a barrel such as in There Won’t Always Be an England. But in the main he’s sharper than that and he does evoke genuine poignancy with the mini-epic Nostalgic For…- in which he conjures up appalling images of a wretched childhood – and the desperately moving Tyre Fire.

As interesting as the lyrical content is the album wouldn’t be anywhere near as interesting if the rest of the band weren’t up to it. With a solid, and occasionally imaginative, rhythm section and guitars taking them to the edge of punk, they are the perfect foil for Ackroyd’s almost spoken delivery. Which could actually be the weak link here, as has a vocal style that can grate at times, but that is a matter of personal taste.

It would be easy to pick holes and list the influences, The Buzzcocks mainly as they have their knack of wrapping up punk in poppy packets. But this is a first album that contains quite a lot of older previously released material. Once that is out of their system it’ll be interesting to hear what comes next, as there’s a feeling they are playing within themselves and there’s more to come from them, especially the musicians.