There is a thought that crosses my mind fairly often when I listen to albums, read books or even watch a film. I take a second, look at the title of, in this case the latest offering from Californian Punk Rock legends Swingin’ Utters, and think, “are they trying to be ironic with the title?” I’ve been aware of the Swingin’ Utters for a fair few years and never really delved further into listening to them, however, on early listening, being aware of them beforehand would be seen as a good thing. There are tracks that fulfil my need for some fast paced gruff, punk-rock purity, but come sandwiched between some disturbingly catchy country effort and far too many songs that could have been rejected by The Strokes.
In essence Poorly Formed isn’t a bad album: it’s not difficult to listen to, it just lacks power-anthems. The album really works well together as a combined unit. Although, if I heard “Take a Walk with the Postman” it wouldn’t cause me to jump on the phone to Shazam, it could provide some good background music for when you need to concentrate on something else. Or else, becomes that one annoying track that gets stuck in your head, even though you only know around four lines.
Having no frame of reference to refer back to regarding the Swingin’ Utters, I can’t tell if this is their standard, so maybe this is just an off day at the office. The band started in the 1980’s and went on a hiatus in 2003 – 2010 so maybe there is still a few cobwebs to blow out from the time away, although it seems they spent a lot of time coming up with witty song titles.
You can download Swingin’ Utters ‘Poorly Formed’ from Amazon now!
