Album Review

Hoover Manoeuvres – Meds

• 14th May 2008

With a name that should go no further than the bill of your local community festival, Hoover Manoeuvres appropriately specialise in the kind of do-goody acid-jazz-funk-dance that some well-meaning soul would want the neighbourhood teens to hear. Admittedly, songs of self-medication and phone sex dirty things up a little, but putting two social commentaries on one EP sticks in the craw.

Worst offender is Teach Them, which sounds like a bunch of youth support workers with a penchant for Goldfrapp and the Brand New Heavies. All “vibes” and “sisters and brothers”, it’s packed with platitudes about loving ourselves and living together, with the standard sinister references to men-in-suits and pawns-in-the-game. Don’t It Seem Like is just as abysmally right-on with its “What am I supposed to say to the next generation. This world doesn’t fill me with any kind of inspiration”.

Vocals are pretty uninspiring too, though on the nail for the genre – a sub Róisín Murphy with a nose-crinkling growl. File somewhere between “Disappointing Eurovision Entry” and “Lovebox Weekender Compilation CD”.