About 18 months ago I had the pleasure of interviewing a rather excellent band on this blog. (Click here to read that interview). Well now it’s time for drum rolls and fanfares because that band have an album out. That band is the splendiferous Colour Me Wednesday and their album is called ‘I Thought It Was Morning’. Earlier this evening, before I ordered my copies, I took a listen to the album as a stream on punk news. So I thought that you might like to know what I thought of this collection of 12 rather spiffing tunes.
The LP kicks off with “Shut”; a perfect start with a quintessentially English rocker which talks about changing the world one person at a time. There really aren’t enough English bands that sing with an accent from Albion. “Holiday From Your Life” has an 80s feel and undertones of Orange Juice in a parallel universe where Edwyn Collins was female. Two tracks in and I’m loving it! This band writes great songs and forget all that X Factor shite, they play bloody well too. A cool reggae vibe is introduced for “Carefree” and it enables the song to jump from the speakers like Lily Allen with balls! So at three songs in it’s also pretty clear that the art of the protest song is alive and well in Uxbridge. Hopefully it will spread much further afield.
The next song I have heard before and I believe that it will become one of my favourite Colour Me Wednesday songs. It’s the supremely titled “Unicorn In Uniform” and it’s the perfect Indie Pop Punk song. What a slow pulsing, brooding song “Lost On The High Street” is. I love the bass line and the harmonies are exquisite. ‘I Feel Like I’m Running Out Of Melodies’ is the first line of “Bitter Boys” and frankly it’s obvious this band have melodies to spare.
Halfway through and this album already feels like one that will get plenty of plays in my collection and one that deserves wide exposure. National Radio need to pick this up! “Don’t Waste Your Breath” is laid out over a really tight reggae bed which is far more the Clash than the Police thankfully. How true is the line ‘Life’s Too Short To Piss Away’? Very true methinks! If you’re a Tory Boy I wouldn’t invite Colour Me Wednesday to your barbecue, you’ll be met with the melodic pop punk of “(I’m Not Coming To Your) BBQ“. I love the way this band draw you into some very commercial sounding tunes that have amazing lyrical bite. “Cat Hair” is no exception to that. The writing on this album belies the fact that this is still a relatively young band.
Perhaps my favourite title on this LP record is “You’re Not My No. 1 Bastard”. I think I’ll be singing that one tomorrow at work! Another song I have heard before and absolutely love is a song that ought to be high in the charts. It’s “Purge Your Inner Tory” and wouldn’t it be fun to see those mindless bigots at the Daily Mail get hot under the collar about such a great song? The album’s title track is also the closing song and it has the makings of a mini epic.
This is a fabulous début album from a band that most certainly dares to be different. If you like formulaic pop pap don’t buy this album. But if you like great music with pop sensibility and a great punk attitude then you’d better bloody buy it! That’s an order ok and I’ll make it dead easy for you. Just click here to buy one, or more than one, of the many formats available. Then tell all your friends about this band and be safe in the knowledge that you knew them before they were mega big! I would like to wish Sam, Jen, Hat and Carmela stacks of success with this album. They are miles better than the Saturdays and the Sundays. They are more powerful than “Blue Monday”, they pack more emotion than “Everything’s Tuesday”, they give “Thursday’s Child” a run for it’s money and they make sure “Friday On My Mind” is no longer on my mind. They are not just your average day of the week, they are COLOUR ME WEDNESDAY!
With Just A Hint Of Mayhem 