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The Paddingtons – No Mundane Options What a great pop record. Some people have just got this pop music thing down to a tee; a lilting verse, a fantastic bridge and then the descent to the inevitable yet always enticing killer-clincher of a chorus. Some people certainly include The Paddingtons. What with the hullabaloo around them, the droppings and the dumpings, the catwalks and the cat calls, it would be easy to dismiss this album as a brave but flawed follow up to the debut First Comes First, but me – I'm not easy; each time I hear this record, I love it more and more. The sledge hammer drums (that sound like your head is actually in the bass drum) and nagging vocal assault of single 'What's the Point In Anything New', the pop-punk rampage of 'Sticky Fingers', the insanely infectious whoops and the cheesy genius of the bass lines of 'Molotov Cocktail', the heartfelt near ballad-esque beauty of 'You and I', the stop-start assault of 'Plastic Men', the intelligent yet understated Hull-growled lyrics and above all the tunes, the immense hook laden sing-along inducing, melody soaked, pop-punk toting TUNES, all explain why this CD has been on my stereo pretty much non stop for the past two weeks, and why despite being sent a promo, I had to go and buy another copy, just to experience the nostalgic thrill of holding something like this in my hands as I queued at the counter in HMV.
Don't believe me? Try it for yourself. There's a line in Plastic Men that rhymes 'plastic' with 'fantastic'; - I couldn't describe this record better myself, an album to make you fall back in love with melodic punk rock. No mundane options? You bet! So, 10 out of 10, and fuck the NME!* Rosey R*E*P*E*A*T *and while we're at it, Fuck the BNP
too – you know The Paddingtons would want it that way!
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