Runaway Boys- Running Wild

In 2006, this Australian band released their first (and only) CD, Running Wild. Named after the Stray Cats song, they are often confused with The Living End, who used the same name at the start of their career when playing as a Stray Cats cover band.

As the bands first release, it's very obvious that they were still leaning heavily on their influences and often ... ahem... "borrowing" many elements of their songs. Starting with Fallen Down, it's similarities with The Living End's "Falling Down" go well beyond the title. Fallen Down sounds very much like an early Living End punkabilly song, unfortunately with less polish.

Sometimes I Feel Alone, has an absolute cracking opening. But then, oh, I realised it's very much "borrowed" from Stray Cats' Storm the Embassy... In isolation, though, it's a wonderful song which stands head and shoulders above the rest of the CD. All of the sections are enjoyable and they have been stitched together nicely to create a cohesive song. Very classy.

Unfortunately, this cohesiveness is a rarity on the rest of the CD. Different is often quite awkward, although the chorus is quite nice. And Temperature is a poor mishmash of Green Day and The Living End. Also, the theme of Temperature's lyrics is very odd, personally I have no interest in hearing a song describing staying in bed with the flu...

Wasting Away has plenty of good ideas, actually it has too many! These ideas could have made 2 or 3 good songs, instead they are all shoehorned together to create another awkward composition. The lyrics referring to Stray Cat Strut ("I'm flat broke and I don't care" etc) are ironic, considering the rest of the CD contains many blatant Stray Cats rip-offs.

Recording quality? Pretty much what you expect for a local garage band. It's listenable, but polished it ain't. My biggest gripe would be the vocals, since the singers unfortunately harmonise together very poorly. While I can overlook it for the odd chorus, when the whole of a song is a shouting duet, I find it pretty jarring.

Favourite songs

Sometimes I Feel Alone

Wortwhile?

Nope. There are some signs of great potential, but mostly this EP is best written off as a learning experience.