Faintest Idea: Ignorance is This

Posted by jamie on Aug 3, 2010

Faintest Idea

Ignorance is This

 

TNS Records, 2010

 

Jamie

 

Norfolk’s Faintest Idea are of those bands that, despite their consistently excellent songs and performances, seemed to remain disappointingly underrated for much too long.  2010, though, could, at long last, see these guys get the serious recognition they’re so long overdue.  As is so often the case in these situations, TNS Records have got involved and released what Sam from the band has called their “biggest album so far”.  It’s actually their second album ever, but the ambition is surely still very impressive.

 

The record opens with a single, sombre klaxon sort of sound (the horn, not the boring indie band), before kicking in and building to a crescendo with guitars, horns and riotous work from Woz on drums.  At this point, you don’t really know exactly what you’re going to get, and for anyone new to the band, as I was, the song’s quick climb to a crescendo in its opening moments really builds the anticipation.  The vocal, when it arrives, is a deep, throaty, urgent effort, backed by a response of “they’re criminals! They’re criminals!” by the other lads on gang vocals.  The song itself, Criminals, it’s called, is a sprint through high-speed street punk rant, with the added bonus of a killer brass part.  There’s a sax and a trombone, and their sound could almost be jazz were it not for the context.  As it is, it’s straight-up punk rock at its urgent, immediate best: all air punching, chant-along, high speed mayhem.  At just over three minutes, this one of the record’s longest tracks,  and an immediate favourite.  The perfect way to open any record, and, I’ll bet, a fair few of the shows on the European tour that they’re just back from.

 

Fight for Progress has another fists-up, shout back chorus and a short, sharp little guitar solo that’s a bit of a surprise and instantly addictive.  I looped it back three times.  The lads on horns get one too, before the tune stops and instantly jumps straight back in, at full volume, to its original chorus and then screeches straight to a halt.  Clocking in at less than two and a half minutes, again, it’s adrenaline-fuelled high-speed punk delivered at full throttle.

 

Too Bad gives a welcome opportunity for a quick breather: it’s an instantly lovable two-tone skank-along, a little like Op Ivy and a lot like something that really should have been on the first Specials album: that rich, deep backing vocal could easily be Neville Staple, and, for one glorious moment, they rhyme “Kings Lynn” with a gang shout, unaccompanied, of “you’re gonna get your fucking head kicked in!” and  then kick straight back in to the track, all upstrokes and horns so as your feet can’t stay still.  It’s brilliantly good fun, but never loses that gritty punk-rock edge that makes it.

The urgency returns in Broken Record and Rational Pride, a song that, again, evokes so many of the great punk bands.  At times, too, it’s almost ska-core, too, and drops out leaving only a snare drum at one point, before sneaking a guitar back in and borrowing, for the second time, from George Orwell’s 1984 and then, inexplicably, a guitar solo that could have come from Thin Lizzy, except it only lasts about ten seconds.  Properly punk, that.  It’s completely bonkers, but, trust me, it works.

 

Western World, like so much of the record, is openly political and fuelled by a palpable sense of angst, but it also differs from a lot of the tracks here by starting more gently, and, to an extent, staying there.  It starts slowly and builds, but, while it still feels rough and ready, and the vocal is gravelly, and at times the words are almost spat out, it doesn’t take off to the speeds that some parts of the record have reached.  It’s the better for that, though.  Again the dual vocals and brass are really evident, and again its all put together really well, but it’s less of an all-out assault this time.  Bully Boy, almost like Too Bad, is more of a ska song: quick fire vocals and a quicker horn part make this a quicker song, though.  It’s a tight little tune, only two minutes long, but packs in a great little horn solo and some thoroughly enjoyable gang vocals to spice up the chorus.  Dead Future is next, and a decent little tune, before the surprising, and relatively incongruous, eerie dub intro to This is the System, again a little darker, and again a scurrying, skankable punk/two-tone sprint that celebrates the real joys of this album: its nicely choreographed backing vocals, its short, soaring, horn solos and its catchy little guitar parts.  There’s a scream, off mic, that builds to a crescendo at the end of this song and the record’s nearly over.  It’s such a gem, this: really enjoyable.  2 Years Conscription wraps the album up: it’s got the lot, this, the fists-in-the-air choruses, the signature horn parts and all the snotty, frustrated, anti-establishment punk rock rage that’s so expertly channelled in to making this song, in particular, really anthemic: think the Grit or the Drop Kick Muphys at their rabble-rousing best, but with horns.  The guitar solo is stunning, and the crossfire of question/answer shouted vocals towards the end of the song is great fun.  It finishes, and the album with it, with one last blast on the horns.  At times Ignorance is This is gritty, and at times it’s frenetic, but it’s actually a little less rough and ready, a little less pure punk certainly than I expected.  It’s got two-tone too, and enough great little hooks to make for a catchy thoroughly enjoyable record that’s powered by its incredible adrenaline levels and that goes heavy on the audience participation.  It’s packed with hooks, harmonies and riffs.  It’s joyous.

 

Stand out tracks:

 

Criminals
Too Bad

Western World

This is the System

2 Years Conscription