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Five albums in, still no sign of TBFM making the big- time.
Please And Thank You is not exactly a step forward for this Cambridge band. You could put this CD on once and forget about it, as much of it is quite forgettable.
In the past they tried to engage fans with an east Anglian slant on Americana, which really does take some doing. Also, they’ve recently down-sized, losing their girl members, leaving them as a more conventional rock quartet, losing much of their spice in the process.
It’s not all bad news though as they try-out their new format, but some of the instrumental detail has gone. They seem to have become a more rock orientated band, trying to branch out with some tricky moments.
They haven’t quite nailed a great song, yet, but there are glimpses of what they might become which comes late on the album, like the punk pop of Stay Friendly, showing acute elements of dynamic experimentation.
Opener Please Yourself does retain their nods to Americana that includes a Led Zeppelin riff combined with shades of Primal Scream’s Country Girl.
Again on Salivating, a juicy rocker, the riff is quite infectious and falls into ‘serious foot-tapper’ and there’s some seriously understated licks to give it a push, but then the banality of St.Albans which is only highlighted by swearing, drags things into mediocrity.
Things take an even bigger nose-dive on limp You Did A Bad Thing, punctuated by ghostly guitar wails. As if it couldn’t get any worse, the duplicity of sentiments and emotions make Cinema Vs. House a real screwball track – “I love you, I don’t love you…, thrown in, about the choice of going to the pictures, or not. Mh.
Thankfully, Borrowed Time has some semblance of a decent catchy tune with some meaningful lyrics.
A further improvement comes with country-rocker Mimi which has by far the best song construction and great instrumentation showing subtlety in the key shifts, but Son Of The Man lets the side down again as it rambles aimlessly.
The Girls In This Town rescues the album, again. This romping and catchy pop rocker with its whopping chorus points them in the right direction once again.
1. Please Yourself
2. Salivating
3. St.Albans
4. You Did A Bad Thing
5. Cinema vs. House
6. Borrowed Time
7. Mimi
8. Don’t Bury Us
9. Stay Friendly
10. Son Of The Man
11. The Girls In This Town
12. Old Wounds
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
Review & concert pics copyright © Elly Roberts, 2004-2010.