This album was released in 1998. Other than that, I know very little about the band! In face, this isn't actually the album art of the version I have. Strangely, the cover art on the copy that I own is nowhere to be found on the internet.
Kicking things off is the instrumental Ska Daddyz Anthem. It establishes straight away that this is a high-energy punk-ska band with the added depth of a mob of very skilled lunatics on trumpets, organs, etc. This, in my book, is a recipe for the perfect band!
I'm not a fan of the recording quality, though. The usual story is that rock engineers mixing ska bands end up struggling with horns or keyboards. Yet strangely, the opposite is true here. The drums and bass lack any bottom end punch and often sound clipped. The distortion guitar often sounds muffled, the cymbals lack sparkle and the whole thing can sound very flat at times (e.g. compressed choruses). Things aren't as bad for the softer songs, however these also lack any envelopment due to the instruments somehow sounding isolated from each other.
Although Lets Get Together technically has lyrics, personally I think of it as a wonderfully layered instrumental that just happens to occasionally have lyrics. And it's up there with Skazz at their finest. It's hard to explain, but the horn section has this vibe of tongue-in-cheek James Bond, jumping around the stage busting mock spy moves.
Holiday hits all the right notes in the verses, but chorus hooks somehow just don't bite. On the other hand, the different style of the chorus does inject some useful variety into the song. Not that things are getting monotonous, that's impossible with the fantastic organ part and all the other craziness going on in the background. But it does get better. Society is a very similar song, topped off with the fantastic chorus it deserves.
Get Up is not just a great ska song, I believe it is accessible enough to be a great pop song. The horn line is infectious, and the feelgood lyrics are wonderful. As useful though, the key ingredient is the frenetic energy, which it has in spades.
Giving us a breather is the ballad You're Mine, which uses a style which has a very high risk of turning tacky! Somehow though, they managed to avoid this (in my humble opinion!) and the result is an oddball classic. It's all tied together nicely with a gentle chorus which also injects some authentic emotion.
Rude Boy is another high-energy romp, similar to Get Up. At their core, these songs are pretty generic 3rd wave punk-ska songs. However, the genius is the plethora of instruments which all hover on the edge of chaos but somehow hold it together. The combination of energy, risk and skill makes for great listening.
On the other hand, Get A Grip is pretty clunky, with some really awkward sections and transitions. But, either as a guilty pleasure or as tongue-in-cheek, I really like the over-the-top nature of it.
The Eagles could have never imagined Hotel California being turned on its head like this! And it is brilliant, one of my all-time favourite covers. Turning the chorus melody into a maximum-attack punk-ska riff is pure genius. And Hotel California is very nicely suited to reggae verses (as The Cat Empire have also shown). To top it all off, the ending slowly whips itself into a punk-rock frenzy with the added drama of a horn section going off their nut! Epic.
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