Captain Wilberforce - Everyone Loves a Villain (Blue Tuxedo Records)

At its best this new release from Captain Wilberforce is beautifully realised pop. At worst it is soft rock in its most disposable form.

Lead track ‘The Twilight Kids’ is a beautifully-constructed song consisting of just acoustic guitar and vocal harmonies which are soft and perfectly pitched.

The sound is more forceful on ‘You Must Remember This’, where the band's exultant cry sounds not too dissimilar from contemporaries One Night Only. Both this and the following track highlight their key strength: crafting of the song around the subject not the singer. On ‘Confetti, Champagne and Roses’, the subject is a former party girl who is maturing and looking for stability. Although done to death by indie songwriters, here we get the story told simply, with just the occasional lyrical flourish ("From here to maternity").

Following this is title track ‘Everybody Loves a Villain’ which is a pure Beatles tribute. Everything is there, from the style of the chord sequence to the vocal changes, even the lyrics draw on the domestic mindset of ‘Lovely Rita’ or ‘Penny Lane’.

Throughout the record the influence of The Feeling is hard to escape, good aspects and bad. Requisite melodies and harmonies are present, but creeping in behind them is that squeaky clean supermarket inoffensiveness that can prove stifling.

On ‘The Girl Who Broke Her Own Heart’ the storytelling is weak and clichés are written broadly. With ‘The Longest Night’ the problem is largely with the predictable music, although the words are hardly inspiring either with the central refrain: “There’s a message on your phone”.

‘No Strings or Ties’ is an unfortunate nod to the 80’s revivalists, and the prevalence of keyboards and over emotive lyrics sounds at best like a watered down Killers track.

From here on in the album really tails off. ‘Get a Grip, My Dear’ and ‘A Different Sea’ completely wash over you, while ‘Don’t Get Me Started’ seems to be an exercise in showing that the band can make angry music, arguably not very successfully.

The album’s finale is also disappointing; ‘Born Again Brand New Man’ ushers in no new sounds and this time around the Beatles parodying falls flat in the dirt.

There is half of a very good pop album here. You can’t escape the feeling that the band ran out of ideas after track four. The highlights are certainly worth your time and money, but for the moment at least the group remain a singles band.

Rating: 3/5

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Captain Wilberforce - Everyone Loves a Villain (Blue Tuxedo Records)
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YOUR COMMENTS

Tree123 in Solihull writes...
Is this a promo copy you reviewed? The track listing is different to mine! [Editor: yes, this was a promotional release.]

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Published: 27/01/2009 at 13:24
Author: Sam Duke
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