VICE SQUAD – Punk Rockers : The Best Of Vice Squad Volume 1 – LP – Black Vinyl [JUL 18]

LP – Limited Edition Black Vinyl. The songs have been lovingly recorded and remastered, keeping all the original fire and adding decades of experience gained from punishing tours and continuous songwriting. Only 300 copies in black.

Vice Squad are 100% DIY and record everything in their home studio with guitarist/riffmaster Paul Rooney engineering and mixing. There is nothing sloppy here; the whole album is concise and intelligent with lightning-speed diction, passion, and intent. The glorious If I Knew What I Know Now and The World Is Wrong are examples of Vice Squads ability to write instantly catchy, witty songs, and the more gut-wrenching material from their last album, Battle of Britain, showcases some enormous riffs and a voice that is a million decibels from Beki‘s untried teen vocals.

The album opens with the deliciously effervescent If I Knew What I Know Now, followed by the sparkling old-school tongue twister Out of Reach. Next up is the visceral Get A Life, an angry anti-suicide note to the desperate, originally the title track from their 1998 comeback album. This is followed by a shimmering version of Vice Squad’s old-school classic Resurrection. While the treatment of the old songs remains true to the original teenage renditions, the upgraded versions pack more of a punch with detuned guitars and growling bass. The tribal tom-toms of Allergy underpin just over two minutes of punk protest about the delights of pollution and asthma. Then comes the sublime Sniffing Glue, a near-perfect punk love song that would be a huge hit if not for its subject matter. Ordinary Girl is punk-pop perfection brimming with hook lines and harmonies, warmly mocking the life that could have been chosen instead of the grindstone at the sharp end of the music industry.
The World Is Wrong is anthemic, joyous, and wonderfully contrary, and one would expect nothing less from a band that has soldiered on and grownthrough the decades. Its always great when bands lead by example. In these increasingly tough times where our survival is threatened by the gargantuan greed of a few individuals, it’s important to continuously stick two fingers up to the grabbers and spoilers. ‘The World Is Wrong‘ does just that in an impassioned, melodic, and optimistic style. ‘Hold your head up, stand your ground, and don’t let the bastards grind you down.’ Then we roar into the finalsingle Beki wrote with original and now sadly deceased guitarist Dave Bateman, Citizen, and continue with another teenage opus, the quite brutal Scarred For Life. Voice of the People is a bulldozer of a song, all swagger and ballsy riffs, and the chorus, Freedom of speech is against the law; now were all criminals, snarls its derision at red-handed red tape. Punk Police sneers over a catchy-as-COVID guitar riff, and the lyrics, Regulation cut, you must measure up, down on the street, PR companies, monied families, running the scene, call out the hierarchies that now permeate Punk. Baritone guitars add extra darkness to one of the first-ever animal rights songs, Humane, and Im struck by how relevant the older songs are. Chocks away, and the awesome Spitfire takes flight like Motrhead on extra amphetamines. Merlin engines fade into Born In A War, the second in the triumvirate of conflict-themed songs, an absolute stonker with huge muscular riffs and lyrics that roar pure outrage. Then comes the ominous Last Rockers, with all the angst of the original plus added depth and resonance. Beki: ‘ “Last Rockers” is a typically depressive adolescent song about nuclear war and being too young to die but too late to live. I believed Punks were the Last Rockers, the final youth cult before the Apocalypse. I was obsessed with punk, and all I wanted to do was sing in a band and be part of the movement, so I would often romanticise the idea of punk in my lyrics.’

Tracklist:

1. If I Knew What I Know Now
2. Out Of Reach
3. Get A Life
4. Resurrection
5. Allergy
6. Sniffing Glue
7. Ordinary Girl
8. The World Is Wrong
9. Citizen
10. Scarred For Life
11. Voice Of The People
12. Punk Police
13. Humane
14. Spitfire
15. Born In A War
16. Last Rockers