I have to admit that my heart sank when I saw this band’s name. But it turns out that The Lancashire Hotpots are to more traditional music what Goldie Lookin Chain were to their certain brand of hiphop. Fresh from supporting Patrick McGuinness and with an appearance on GMTV under their belts, this Northwest gang of slightly grumpy, slightly old men are here to reflect on the state of their world today with the sort of harmless comedy that has also gained them fans in the likes of Chris Evans and Colin Murray.

As ‘sing-a-long’ as the wonderful Ade Edmonson and his Bad Shepherds- and despite not taking themselves particularly seriously either, just as accomplished as musicians- ‘Criminal Record’ is eight tracks cheerfully covering the subjects of identity fraud, stealing a neighbour’s broadband and features a sea shanty about smuggling sweets into the cinema (‘Cinema smugglers’), Johnny B Goode riffs about vegetarianism (‘Hardcore quornography’) alongside ‘Landlord, lock the door’ in which we participate in a lock-in with the likes of Kylie and Limahl.

Though not particularly witty, it is this sort of silly humour that makes TLH great, with an innocence, unpretentiousness and clear love of what they do that will guarantee them broad appeal. I could quote all manner of lyrics but you really need to hear it for yourselves. Oh, OK; one. In ‘Released without charge’- a song pondering why celebrities always get away with crimes that the rest of us have to answer for – they muse: “If you’ve been on ‘Loose Women’ a couple of times/ Or on ‘Saturday Kitchen’, frying up a bit of seabass/ you might as well have a “Get out of jail free” card”. Arthur Smith says they’re the “sexiest band in the world”. Though not as old, but probably as grumpy, I was also humming along long after the CD stopped.

Anna C

http://www.myspace.com/thelancashirehotpots

Released 26th April, 2010.