CD Reviews

Taking everything that made the last record great but adding a new twist with the inclusion of saxophones, as first seen on last years 'Who The Hell Is Frank Wilson' single, 'The Kids…' takes a whole host of musical styles and mixes them to create a unique sound for this most vibrant of bands.

Steve and the Gretsch.

Recorded live in London in March of 2007 one of the records greatest successes comes in capturing the energy the band emit live, and while I don't think it would be possible to capture the full antics of front man Mark Le Gallez on record this is as close as its ever likely to get and that’s all thanks to Ed Deegan at Gizzard Studios.

The sound on this record really highlights how the band are devolving their sound back through the decades while not becoming simply a retro styled act. Across the record the band mix the mod and proto punk influences they have displayed in the past with elements of surf pop, rockabilly and psychobilly to create a sound that spans rock 'n' roll from its 1950's origin right up to today.

The band, who now seem to be a somewhat more stable line up than on their LP, really complement one another with their sound here to create a great whole, most obvious in the mix are the new additions of Garrick Jones and Henry Castledine's saxophones which throughout add a jazzy feel to proceedings while never dragging the record in a purely jazzy direction and help make this a real set of tunes you can dance to.

These are backed up by the guitar work of Steve Lynch which while evoking the same retro rock 'n' roll vibe of the rest of the band adds a hint of grungy fuzz which brings the records sound right up to date, even though he is using a retro-styled Gretsch.

Under all of this comes the bass guitar of Nick Dodd which brings to the fore jazzy notions as well as the rockabilly vibe, at times really sounding like there's an upright bass being thrown into the mix.

This is of course all underpinned by the hammering drums of Ozzy Austin who's powerhouse drumming would not look out of place backing up a metal band, but that never overpowers the other musicians.

Mark Le Gallez.

Above all this of course come the vocals of Guernsey’s mod legend Mark Le Gallez. As with everything else on this album his lyrics take reference from various styles from the proto-punk 'kitchen sink' stylings of the records title track to the football terrace anthem of 'Georgie Best', and all this while sounding like he fell straight out of 1960's London.

While almost every track on the disc is already a live favourite with fans of the band, a few really stand out as highlights on the record including the rocking sounds of 'Who The Hell Is Frank Wilson' and '5 Years On The Edge of Tyme', the speed-jazz and rockabilly of 'Devil Eyes' and the dance party fun of 'Rockahula' and 'Crazy Little Love Machine'.

In all 'The Kids Are… Not Alright' is everything you'd hope for from Thee Jenerators, and more. Mixing the sound they had on their earlier releases with new stylistic notions to create what is essentially a set of retro-styled live favourites of the present and future, and while nothing except the actual experience is going to capture what it's like to hear Thee Jenerators live, this is about as close as you can get.