Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
With a heavy thump, the sound of a jaw can be heard through the noise of life, the backdrop to being alive in the 21st Century and all its relative shenanigans and utterances, that said jaw drops to the floor as the final track of the latest E.P. from the Ragamuffins, The Benefits of a Downhill Paper Round, clicks off and the stunned overwhelming desire to jump for joy at a very cool set of songs is only tempered by the time it takes to pick up the jaw from the floor.
Life can be cruel, it can take the proverbial out of a music lover to the point where just as you might think you have a handle on the abundance of music available, something comes along to wake up the irritating self-assurance you have gained and slap you round the face and then put a comforting arm around your shoulders. Such is the possibly desired effect of listening to the Ragamuffins and a selection of songs so well presented they make a Christmas box of chocolates seem slap dash and wrapped up by a goat who has spent the night eating everybody’s share of mince pies.
From the opening track of Shoegazing, through the immensity of Fingernails & Fairytales, the brilliance at the unspoken complexity and humour of Eleven In The Afternoon and the lyrical ability from David John Jaggs that springs higher than Zebedee on steroids being pumped into his bounce. The Benefits of a Downhill Paper Round cycles through the imagination with ease, it takes the handlebars from the music rider and in no part does it ever slam on the breaks to come to a crashing halt in which so many bands find themselves. The hole in the road is ever found when the E.P. finishes and the music regretfully comes to an end. Then again isn’t that what repeat buttons are for?
The Benefits of a Downhill Paper Round is an E.P. of fabulous wealth and one that is as gratefully received as the tip found in an envelope on the door by the person delivering the papers at Christmas.
Ian D. Hall