Album Review: The Receipts

Tumble down through the tunnel-like thief of time that is YouTube and be transported back to the RTE oddity that was Jo Maxi – kids, ask your parents. You’ll find The Receipts’ 1992 moment of glory, ‘Coming Round Again’, a minor power-pop nugget. Not only did they sound like Revolver filtered through Badfinger and Big Star, singer Karl McDermott’s Rickenbacker and granny glasses looked the part too.

Real life took over as it is so often wont to do and the band dissolved but they’re back gigging again, and have gifted us this debut album, only a short few decades later. A good one it is too, with songs that match up to ‘Coming Round Again’, included here in beefed-up form. ‘No Greater Love’ sits on a beautiful orchestration from no less a hand than Fiachra Trench, the man behind the strings on ‘I Don’t Like Mondays’ and ‘Fairytale Of New York’, the bubbling ‘Shoot The Crow’ sports a quasi-choral middle eight, and ‘Stay On My Side’ takes a good run at The Kinks during their 60’s prime.

Turn the thing over and the choppy arrangement of ‘Lisa Jane’ recalls The Knack, ‘She’s Leaving Home’ (no, not that one) could be a long lost outtake from The La’s, and the closing ‘Not With Me Anymore’ is a bit like ‘Ticket To Ride’ after someone’s cut the brakes. Production heavyweight Chris Kimsey (everyone from The Stones to The Chieftains) helps out behind the desk, and if you’re after another reference point, former Kimsey clients Diesel Park West - a sadly fairly obscure gang of pop worshipping English men - sang off a very similar hymn sheet to the highly enjoyable one being employed here. It’s enough to prompt a trip out to The Blue Light to catch their Thursday night residency. Good work.

Bad Finger