houdini dax

Houdini Dax’s debut album, the irresistible You Belong to Dax Darling, was a thrilling kaleidoscope of mellow ’60s pop, semi-skimmed psychedelic and art-school rock that should, all things being equal, have made teens household names. in the Principality. Despite the album failing to make its mark, stalling the band’s career in the process, the power-pop trio still seemed like a sure bet to fully realize their ‘band most likely’ ambitions. No one, back then, could have considered the trials and tribulations the group would have to overcome just to set foot in the recording studio again!

After four years of endless performances, imaginative fundraising (playing Christmas Eve gigs at fans’ homes) and, most recently, emergency busking (the lads had £10,000 worth of equipment stolen from the party back of his pickup truck in March) the gang has, at long last, completed their Herculean task. However, the question of £64,000 dollars must be asked; Was it worth all the backbreaking work, all the heartbreak and disappointment, all the fighting windmills along the way?

Opening track “Apple Tree,” one of the standout singles of the summer, is strong evidence that Houdini Dax is still a very special band. A dizzying, effervescent number, as slick and shallow as a Preston Sturges script, it would have gone triple platinum in the hands of Marc Bolan or XTC. Sometimes timing is everything! Next up is “Legs,” a big-boned pop song that showcases the band’s elegant rhythm section – Owen Richards (bass) and David Newington (drums) – as well as the biting metalwork of singer Jack Butler.

“She’s my purple power ranger, she’s my Lara Croft / She’s my Cameron Diaz before Botox / She’s my Easter bunny, she’s my Christmas elf / She’s the worst magazine on the top shelf.”

Butler’s grim kitchen sink vignettes are usually left with a dash of dark humour, putting him somewhere between Chris Difford and Alex Turner on the British songwriting spectrum. In fact, “Found Love at the Dole Office” (based on a young couple who witnessed them get too close for comfort on the job board) is as comically poignant as anything Squeeze or the Arctic Monkeys have ever recorded. .

‘Went to the Old Arcade / To break a coin and have some lemonade / Saw a girl who didn’t understand me / She was too pretty for her own good / I found love in the Dole office / I couldn’t get a job, but I have a kiss’.

It’s a good observational piece, a trick Butler repeats in the colorful “Good Old-Fashioned Maniac” character study about a drug-damaged hustler who loses control of life.

“There’s more to get up and go than the Antiques Roadshow / Travel from Tiger Bay to South Bordeaux / Take five steps forward and five steps back / ‘Cause he’s a good old-fashioned maniac.”

The soggy harmony of “Let’s Stick Together” is freakishly catchy, as is the throaty “Get Your Goo On.” Long the centerpiece of the band’s live show, thanks to its Mickey Spillane riffing deck, it loses nothing in the transition to a studio setting. Any momentum lost with the somewhat labored “All These Days” is quickly regained with the wonderful instrumental “Crack Dance.” If ‘International Man of Mystery’ Austin Powers ever retires from his retirement home looking for overdressed secret agents, this could be his new theme song! The gut-wrenching “Roll on Up” has the compulsively addictive chorus we’ve come to expect from the band, however the title track proves to be something of a slow burner, meaning the album ends on a rather low key.

The curious omission of “Our Boy Billy” and “Struggling in the Sand” means the album’s second half fades slightly. For the most part though, this is a spectacular comeback from arguably the best guitar band in the British Isles. Naughty Nation is a real delight – more fun than playing with your shiny new Scalextric on Christmas morning!