Hard-Fi

With an album as good as this it is only a matter of time whether you own it or not! It starts with the first song you hear - for me it was Hard To Beat, performed at the Mercury Music Awards. I thought, yeah that's OK, but never heard of them, that's probably their only decent song and now they've had their fifteen minutes of fame they'll disappear into obscurity. Wrong! A few weeks after that and you couldn't move without hearing or seeing them - Cash Machine was everywhere as a single and a lot of other tracks were getting radio attention, it was time to listen to the full album. To say I was blown away is a bit strong; there are a few weaker tracks in the running order that after a few plays you just want to skip to get to the main course. But there are also six or seven outstanding tunes that belt out at you relentlessly, demanding repeat play. OK, so at heart these boys are a bit aggressive, there's a lot of urban angst coming through, but a lot of intelligence too. Maybe I just needed to bang my head and work out a bit of anger, but for some reason I took hold of it for a few weeks and rarely wanted to listen to anything else. Imagine my delight then upon finding out they were to play Edinburgh on Hogmanay...! It certainly added excitement to the build up and my first street party in 3 years. Supported by new Scottish band Brothers and Sisters (who weren't half bad, watch this space) the lads made it onto the Waverley stage by 11pm and totally rocked the 100,000 or so revellers within earshot, kicking off with Cash Machine, reaching a peak with a superb cover of Seven Nation Army (White Stripes) and going into orgasmic frenzy for Living For the Weekend - "not only is it New Year's Eve, it's Saturday!" cried charismatic frontman Richard Archer (not the greatest live singer in the world, but masses of energy and youthful swagger). Timed to perfection their set ended just before the fireworks, and who cared that it took 25 minutes to squeeze back onto Princes St? It kicked off one hell of a party and that's all that mattered. Maybe they will drop off the radar as quickly as they have appeared on it, maybe their energy will burn itself out and the zeitgeist will move on, but there is certainly a potent songwriting talent here and I hope it sticks around for more than a quick flash in the pan. 9/10 Kx