Reviews
Artist: The Rifles
Album: Freedom Run
Label: Nettwork
Tracks: 13
Website:http://www.therifles.net
If ever a band was born to shout 'whoa-aa-ooh' it was The Rifles. Strung out on Jam singles, Oasis b-sides, feather haircuts and tidy shoes, their honest-to-goodness, no-frills mod pop may not have changed many lives, but it sure gave the boys at the back something to shout about as they got pints in. Their 2006 debut, No Love Lost, attracted the attention of their spiritual mentor, one John William (better known as Paul) Weller, who appeared on stage with them and took them out on live dates.
Not much had changed with their second, 2009's equally earnest though unspectacular Great Escape, and if the band had retreated to their Chingford home and formed a tribute band few would have noticed, much less cared.
But if their influences have taught The Rifles anything it is to stick to your guns and don't give up to your given roles. Holed up in Weller's Black Barn studio with Urban Hymns producer Chris Potter, The Rifles have clearly been attentive pupils. Freedom Run is a bold statement of intent, at last they've got something to back up their brash swagger. Coming Home captures the kind of running uphill euphoria The Charlatans once excelled at, while the piano-lead Nothing Matters channels Phil Spector and Falling manages to creatively retool a couple of Sound Affects-era Jam motifs - a method the Old Man himself (not to mention his Manc disciple NG) has never been averse to.
Frustratingly, the old insipid Rifles sound resurfaces on the sub-standard beat-jangle of I Get Low which echoes pale imitators like The Chords that emerged in the wake of The Jam 30-plus years ago. But it's a minor blip, as more ambitious material like the folk-leaning psychedelia of Little Boy Blue (Human Needs), the classy pop of recent 45, Tangled Up In Love and the sunkissed guitars and harmonies of Sweetest Thing and Cry Baby win out over The Rifles' more Luddite tendencies.
Nick Churchill