Wall Street Riots : Playground Politics : EP
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Something is brewing. There is revolution afoot. Maybe it is a sign of people reading more newspapers or the effect of anti-capitalist protestors at G20. Whatever it is, there is an increase of irrepressible young bands that have the scent of punk in their nostrils. This is no bad thing, it might even mark a shift in the industry’s current output; written somewhat insincerely.
What is annoying is the fact that these new acts have members who are barely out of their teens. Whilst this has no bearing on their ideologies or even knowledge of punk history, there is a fundamental irritation that grows into anger. The voice of a punk rocker is so important. Everyone can hear the bitter resentment towards the establishment from John Lydon’s mouth, the devil-may-care rebellion of Joe Strummer or even the anarchic humour of Rancid’s Lars Frederiksen. Wall Street Riots’ frontman, Charlie Cosser, is another in a lengthy list of singers whose voice just doesn’t fit the genre. It is too polished, too middle-classed. It sounds like he has plums wedged in there. First and foremost you should make sure that you sound the part. WSR have fallen at the first hurdle and continue clipping those barriers through their EP. Regardless of the self-reflexive satire that the title “Playground Politics” implies, it doesn’t stop their music from being drab and one-dimensional.
It can never be good when you are hearing Metro Station over and over again on each track. The attempts to grasp at anthemic status with echoed lyrics – “Who don’t we know” (“Lords of Dogtown”) – fail to impress and basic instrumental make finishing the EP a chore. Songs blur into songs and their ‘punchier’ lyrics are lost on a sea of torpor. Kerrang will probably love it.
1/5
Words: John Elmes
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