If you don't own The Futureheads' eponymous debut album, shame on you. Never will you grasp the full excitement of this Mackem quartet. All is not lost, though, you must have heard Hounds Of Love recently (an exceptionally good cover of the Kate Bush classic), and you really ought to hear their new single, Decent Days And Nights.
It's a suitably punky affair with stabbing guitars, a fast beat and yelped vocals. I haven't the first idea what Barry Hyde is banging on about - the lyrics are (as usual) complete nonsense: "This is a brand new problem / A problem without any clues / If you know the clues it's easy to get through / But you look confused and you don't know what to do / It's hard to give an answer if you haven't got the clues / If you work it out tell me what you find." Eh...what?
But who cares that he's spouting total gobbledygook? Who cares that the music is almost totally derived from The Clash, The Jam and Gang Of Four? If there's a band that can produce relentlessly energetic songs, that make you want to dance around like a loon, then it's The Futureheads, and if there's a song that typifies this brilliance, then it's Decent Days And Nights.
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