Huzzah! After much hard work, the cheeky chappies from Hastings have finally bounced back into full view with another full length album. It's already been compared to Blur in some quarters, and certainly demonstrates some of Stuns influences outside the confines of goth, but it's also their strongest, most confident work to date.
Apparently this will be the last album with "Children On" prefixing their name, (no, it really will be this time,) hence it's also the last time anyone can get away with calling them the Kiddies! (Er, or so they hope.) I hear it's also the last album for Poison Dwarf, who's decided she'll call it a day and make way for a live drummer. But enough of all that, what's this album like?
After a reasonable opening track, a geeky technoid drumbeat confuses the listener until it suddenly explodes into Building Boxes, which could well be the Stuns best track to date. As the guitars thrash about, Neil Ash belts out "Hitting the high life, this means of escape / Let's get glue sniffers Evostick blisters..." Building Boxes is also Stun's next single.
Neil's amusing social analysis continues with Felch and the upbeat Style Police, and by the time I'd heard the uplifting Singles and Doubles I was completely won over and beyond caring if actually has any Blur in it or not. The album closes with a new version of Whiskey a go-go and the slightly moody Demonica Beatnik, which rounds things off nicely.
Mondo Weird is like a single gleaming bottle of Metz, thrust up between the thousand tired, worn out bottles of Newky Brown that all the Sisters and Nephilim derived bands represent. BritGoth is here. Go out and buy now. (DH)
[1997]
