Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
When pressed to name significant figures to have come out of Lincoln, the greater population of the U.K. may struggle before coming up with the fact that one of the nation’s favourite and experienced actors in the form of John Hurt was schooled there and for those more knowledgeable will be aware that Sir Isaac Newton was born in the same county but as for its music it has remained dangerously unexplored.
However something enjoyable and musically infectious is coming from out of that noble county in the shape of The Popdogs. Their debut album, Cool Cats for Pop Dogs is a decent and memorable album in every way. Not only does it have nothing to equate it too in the current pop offerings; which certainly marks it out as 21st century luxury, it also has the ability to make the listener think of much simpler times when the likes of Liverpool’s Gerry and the Pacemakers and the rest of the Sixties Mersey Beat generation that dominated the airwaves and thrilled and inspired subsequent generations wishing to capture that distinctive sound.
Powerful pop induced radiance with the added dash of self belief in their work mark this band, made up of James Styring on vocals and Tim McKeating on guitar/backing vocals, are exactly the right antidote to the anodyne and incessant dross created by television’s so called talent shows. The Popdogs seem to have taken the proper route to getting music played and recorded whilst retaining their honest and catchy tunes’ integrity.
An album full of great songs is rare in the world of mass produced popular music and not really seen in this particular way since those heady days of the first British music invasion. However in tracks such as Last to New York, the fantastic instrumental piece of Mild Mannered J and the hypnotizing Queen of the USA they assume a position of perfection years ahead of time. Whimsical and contagious, Cool Cats for Pop Dogs is utterly absorbing.
There are many bands and groups that get touted as one to watch for the future; however The Popdogs are surely destined for big things.
Ian D. Hall