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Former Cell Mates

Who's Dead and What's to Pay?
2008
Household Name

Former Cell Mates - Who's Dead and What's to Pay? (Cover Artwork)

Review by: dktr
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Published on July 25th 2008

London’s Household Name are back. The label that bought the UK punk scene its most popular acts earlier this millennium have returned with a handful of potentially exciting new releases.

First up is Former Cell Mates, a band who plays Leatherface-ish punk rock, meaning gruff vocals, strummed chords and a tinge of country. This isn’t any real big surprise considering that they hail from Sunderland (same city as Leatherface) and were formed by David lee Burdon, ex-Leatherface bassist, who writes everything.

The album works at a constant level: Bruce Springsteen punk, no real surprises (no jazz chords whatsoever), no real chances, no real changes. Burdon’s voice is somewhat an uneasy listen, being cleaner and sounding generally a bit drunk.

There’s nothing that really sets a spark going, but I’m sure it has its market: There seems to be enough (too much?) of this stuff going on in the UK as well as the US at the moment -- another band (even if it’s ex-Leatherface) is not really needed.

To paraphrase Sheryl Crow – a change - a change - a change would do us good.

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Posted by RamblinBoyOfPleasure on 2008-07-31 15:28:23
My Score:

please do not review any more albums for punknews please,thats a joke!

Posted by dangerousbert on 2008-07-29 04:51:29

Come on, call this a review? 'it's got no jazz chords'. bloody hell.

Posted by Knifetrader on 2008-07-26 08:57:54

I can't comment on the album as I haven't listened to it yet, but they are one of the best live bands I saw all year long!!

Posted by blanktapesemptybottles on 2008-07-25 22:25:06

their first album is good I did not know this came out

Posted by ddb43 on 2008-07-25 15:52:09

Edit: do not due

Posted by ddb43 on 2008-07-25 15:51:17
My Score:

It kinda gets my head bobbing, but many other bands due this style better: The Gaslight Anthem and Nothington to name a couple.

Posted by Amsteel on 2008-07-25 15:06:56
My Score:

The first few songs sounded fresh and quite good. The country tinge started setting in, but I was still liking it. Then came the middle of the album, where I wish it would have ended. It drags on far too long and every song sounds too much like the last. It's plain and boring background music, there is really no point listening to it when there's dozens of bands in the same genre that do it better. However, it is better than 95% of music out there. I'd rather listen to this than most anything on the radio, metal, screamo or "nu emo". But again, others do what they're doing a bit better.

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Former Cell Mates