July 5, 2004 by A.S. Van Dorston

“They’re mod as fuck, mate.” That was the reply from the pottymouthed girl in Manchester when I asked about Brighton’s Ordinary Boys. But not mod like the early Who, Small Faces or The Creation. More like a couple generations down the line between The Jam and Blur, with a few odd touches like Julian Cope’s Teardrop Explodes (especially on “Robots And Monkeys”). The band promises a fresh blast of energy with the giddy horn-powered rush of “Over The Counterculture” and a muscular cover of The Specials’ “Little Bitch,” enhanced with thick guitar riffs. Despite these strengths, the band doesn’t have a particularly unique voice, which makes the sentiments in “The List Goes On” hilariously ironic – “I’ve heard it all done before / a hundred years ago or more / Originality is so passé.”

One can begin to forgive that gaffe on the relative strength of the sophisticated pop of “Week In Week Out.” “Weekend Revolution” and “Maybe Someday” are nothing new musically, but enjoyable enough rockers with good lyrics about consumerism and office thugs. The band trips seriously over “Just A Song,” a wretched ballad with trite lyrics that suggest Morrissey at his most banal. The album winds up with more mid-tempo songs that belie the band’s intentions to save British rock from the doldrums of commercialism. But on the strength of their singles, The Ordinary Boys certainly have the potential to be key players in making extraordinary British rock.

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