Skating Polly – Chaos County Line

This album has been 5 years in the waiting, and this review has been weeks in the head, thinking on how I can put into words what this album actually does for myself, and can do for you.  The result is that talking too much might not be the best thing to do, this is a band and an album that just do all the talking through their lyrics and music, so listen you should.

Eighteen tracks that make up a double album are what we get this time, and my entail thought was that to give you an album with this many tracks, is firstly brave and secondly really interesting as to how the band feel the songs are strong enough to stand up to the listeners ear without losing them three quarters of the way through.  Well lets be honest, after listening to the whole album 4 to 5 times, I struck by the longevity of this album and how it will 100% stand the test of time too, being so long without doubt work perfectly for these songs, every time you go back you catch/hear something you might have missed the time before.

Chaos County Line kicks off with a song that in most covers what this album has through its core, lyrics that have meaning to the band or even in a similar way to the listener, a mix of life and the realities of living it, and musically soft on the outside but with a kick of chilli hiding right there in the centre! To fire you up to a frenzy ‘Baby On My Birthday’ does all this wonderfully. 

At the start of this review, I did say I wouldn’t drag it out and let the music do all the talking, but obviously you would like some reason to spend an hour of your time listening, so here are my highlights and why.

‘’Hickey King’ is a song that lives somewhere in the Nirvana camp, as pure a rock/punk song as you could want to hear, with a vocal and musical maelstrom of sound, which is also found in songs like ‘Hush Now’ and ‘Send A Priest’.

From here we go to songs like the amazing ‘Girls Night’ that oozes love and sensuality, ‘All The Choices’ which looks at how choices are so much more acceptably diverse in a world that finally is growing, but can be a minefield.

If I was pushed to pick a favourite song, at this moment in time it would be the eclectic ‘Tiger At The Drugstore’ which shows Skating Polly in all their technicolour glory, vocally outstanding, musically special and lyrically poetic. But the problem (and a great problem) with this masterpiece of an album, is your favourite will change from month to month or even week to week.

Bands come and go, albums come and go, Skating Polly have grown and grown, and in this album you will hear them at their most vulnerable, most poetic, most chaotic, most angry, most loving, and by far at their most brilliant best.

Out on June 23rd via El Camino Media

Head on over to the Skating Polly website for everything else could possibly want about the band.