Reviews
Artist:Skinny Lister Album: Shanty Punk
Label: Xtra Mile
Tracks: 11
Website: https://www.skinnylister.com/
Album titles don't come much more descriptive than this, pretty much summing up what's in the box. Currently a five-piece following the departure of guitarist Sam Brace, they remain fronted by songwriter Daniel Heptinstall with sister Lorna Thomas stepping up to the mic on occasions. This is their fifth album and the energy and exuberance remain as potent as on their debut back in 2009, though it's fair to say the musicianship has improved across the years.
True to the title, it's a shanty that casts off with 'Haul and Bale', albeit less rollicking than you might expect for an opener with its slow and steady drum thump rhythm accordion and Stephen Roberts-Pratt on hurdy gurdy which, the lyrics never quite sure of the title spelling, is a never surrender rally ("You'll never see a white flag up our crooked pole...Haul and bail we'll keep the wreck rolling/Never will we drown, never send us down…Haul and bale we'll keep the wreck rolling"), that seems as much about a band cry of defiance as a ship being holed like a "pianola roll" in battle.
Putting their school Shakespeare studies to good use, things liven up, borrowing from the with Henry V Agincourt speech for 'Unto The Breach' which, Roger Wilson on violin, continues in the same thematic vein ("When victory is out of reach/Keep on rolling on and digging deep/As we roar 'once more unto the breach'"), the opening lines "When your song has gone from bad to worse/When your world is burdened with a curse/Raise a drink and sing another verse/And the blackened cloud will soon disperse" firmly in the Merry Hell songbook tradition even if the music is more Pogues.
As anyone familiar with the band will know, songs about drinking loom large and they get the first round in with 'Company Of The Bar', violin joined by banjo, accordion and penny whistle for another thump and stomp, here celebrating downing pint or ten before setting out to sea the following day, our carouser declaring he'll miss the pub more than the girl he leaves behind.
Thomas takes her first turn in the spotlight for 'Mantra' sounding like a female Beans On Toast by way of memories of The Boothill Foot Tappers as she sings "Make it a mantra make it a habit/To recognise what you have while you have it/Make it a moment reach out and grab it/Recognise what you have while you have it/Don't lose your spark hold on to your spirit/Gamble your heart and everything with it/I've got a love and I'm gonna give it/I've got a life and I'm gonna live it", which basically boils down to a touch of the carpe diem.
Other instruments put down, it's back to the drum thump and slurry vocals template for '13 Miles', a rousing true story about a crew of RNLI volunteers who, on January 12 1899, , on account of "squally weather", couldn't launch from Lynmouth to rescue the Forrest Hall so decided to haul Louisa the lifeboat ("All 10 tonne and 10 metre") 13 miles over land ("80 men by the wayside fell/20 haulers tough as rock/With 18 horses"), which included a quarter gradient climb of 434m over Countisbury Hill and a trek across Exmoor, and set out off from Porlock Wier instead, saving all 18 on board.
It's more rousing romp for 'Down On The Barrier' as, fuelled by "the Holy trinity of beer, song and friends", the office drudge is washed away in gallons of shanty mosh pit sweat at a gig. The spirit of The Pogues again rears its head for another true story, this one directly involving Heptinstall who , after "One too many Radebergers, one too many Prosts" found himself out of his league 'Arm Wrestling In Dresden' ("I swear the guy was thrice the size of me or maybe more/At least that's how I tell it, what the hell let's call it four"), though, torn tendon aside, it's actually another number about giving things a go despite the odds ("don't regret the things you do just those that you do not/The arm is a reminder to always have a shot").
Continuing along the same track of band misadventures, Thomas back on vocals, 'Pittsburgh Punch Up' relates what happens when you pick the wrong driver for the tour bus and then put him on the guest list ("the driver's in the bar/With not enough sleep and too many jars/Slurring some song, it spills on the floor") where he proceeds to get into some aggro, with the band themselves having to get behind the wheel for the next stop Cleveland.
Plunging the glass into that rare auld mountain dew, the booze continues to flow for 'Forge On George', the lyrics of which extend little further than "forge on George we'll follow you forth and fill the flagon full". The George in question would be Lorna and Max's dad George Thomas who gets his own party piece singing his self-penned Music Hall-styled tale of 'William Harker', a self-declared "rake and a roaring blade", inspired by the joys of the Saturday night down the English pub ("As we cut a caper on the bar room floor/For neither loss nor gain/If we're not lovers when we're homeward bound/Then good friends we'll remain") where "Some like a cool, clear lager/Others like a bottle of pale/The boys all titter over pints of bitter/And some drink Ansell's ale (God help 'em!)". I confess, though, even with a Good Beer Guide, I couldn't track down Mrs Surgeon's ale.
Perhaps after all that drinking, it's appropriate to end with Thomas's final vocal, the 'Broken, Bruised & Battered', again sounding like a Merry Hell anthem as she sings "Come on all you lost and trodden on/If your day has been a rotten one/When your battered bones can stand no more/There's still a rattle in your roar", a song surely destined to be rolled out on New Year's Eve with its singalong "Raise a drink and bid farewell/To a year that's been a living hell/When you're knackered with no good to show/Well at least you had a bloody go". Great stuff.
Mike Davies
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