Album Review

Lovvers – OCD Go Go Go Girls

• 7th Aug 2009

Scuffed guitars? Check. Danceable riffs? Check. Head bang-able noise? Check. And some good ole dirty rock ‘n’ roll fun…? Check. ‘OCD Go Go Go Girls’ has got all the ingredients to knock the dirty socks off any fun-loving, rock ‘n’ roll music fan.

What with all the commercialised hip hop and pop acts that are rife in the UK charts, it seems an almost impossible task to find a half-decent band practising the ‘old arts’ that the likes of punk legends, New York Dolls have handed down to our nation of pop brains. Yet, in the midst of it all, there is a glimmer of hope…Lovvers. Think New York Dolls blended in with The Ramones and a bit of The Strokes, thrown in for good measure… With these kinds of influences, you’d be forgiven for mistaking the band (hailing from the English midlands) as American punks.

By the sounds of their album, Lovvers don’t claim to be the next big thing or even original, shamelessly regurgitating old tricks from masters of punk The Ramones, to good effect. What they do have though is an element of carefree fun that would appeal to anyone who isn’t over the age of 70. You may not understand (or even hear) the lyrics, it may not boggle the mind with philosophical ideas and broaden the senses with its poetry but I challenge you reader not to toe-tap along with the tracks, in spite of your more sophisticated taste. The album teases the hearts of any rock ‘n’ roll thorough-bred- capturing the essence of a good time where all live happily ever after in the land of rock n roll.

First track of the album, ‘Creepy Crawl’, makes an attack on the eardrums of the listener but promises to smooth it over in all good time…and it does. The guitars are simple, but the best possible type of simplicity, as they’re infectiously catchy. Lovvers manage to sustain this through to Track two of the album, ‘Four Count’, which seems to come from a more indie place in their musical hearts- beginning with a danceable riff not far from those heard of The Holloways, but, just so we’re not mistaken, this soon morphs back in to the retro sounding, Quo-esque rock ‘n’ roll of which this album mainly comprises. Similarly, this sentiment is taken up in ‘Ad Lib’, which I can only imagine as being a corker live.

…And that’s ‘the thing’ with this album, it conjures up ideas of a raving gig anywhere it’s listened to, even in the respectable tidiness of a middle-class home. However, this can be a double-edged knife, causing the listener to feel as though they’re missing out on a chunk of the Lovvers effect- reinforced by the fact that the entire album has an intentional fuzzy sound quality that masks the vocals, and teases the listener by leading them in to an imaginary gig in the underground scene of the 70’s. The fuzziness also gives the enjoyable effect of delving through a layer of rock to reveal a gem of a song.

Tracks, ‘Creepy Crawl’, ‘Ad Lib’ and ‘OCD Go Go Girls’ form the highlights of the album. Although these can sometimes be overshadowed by their sheer similarity to the rest of the tracks, putting them at risk of being lumped together as one big noise. At times then, ‘OCD Go Go Go Girls’ can become a little repetitive and as such, is one of the few minor slip-ups.

The album’s not perfect, but it is a debut and when you think about it, what album really is? What Lovvers have managed though is to compile a group of songs that previous generations would regard with warm familiarity, yet still shows the new kids on the block how things are done.