Arnold Sideways

Fiery Dublin rock quartet The Chapman Society are a great live band. And now they have delivered an album that matches the incendiary nature of their stage shows. There’s a Stranglers-like touch to the delicious ‘Don’t Look Down’ whilst full-blooded rock tracks like ‘Fire Fire Fire’ and ‘Blood Red Room’ don’t take any prisoners. ‘I Really Don’t Deserve You’ and ‘Normal People’ are incredibly catchy while ‘The Stopclock’ and ‘Day After Day’ let the band display their more reserved side, with some delicious guitars on the former and killer strings on the latter.
Morrissey is an obvious influence, but TCS also pack in elements of The Who and Britpop, adding their own stylised icing to what is a highly nutritious musical cake. The vocals of Sean Kavanagh and Russell Keogh hit the spot time and time again, and the playing is never less than provocative. Wonderful.