How the fuck did THIS happen?
The View – the same View that used to drop by unannounced at Clash HQ to drop off their demo CDs, the same View that cadged a lift with Clash back from a Babyshambles gig in Glasgow to Dundee, the same View we’d see bleary eyed around the nightlife hotspots of the City of Discovery – have only gone and made an astonishing debut album. Reeking of youth, boundless energy and pure couldn’t-give-a-fuck-ness, ‘Hats Off…’ is a direct descendent – the little Scottish cousin, if you will – of The Libertines’ ‘Up The Bracket’; sharing, as they do, a ramshackle unpredictability and erratic abandon in the best possible way. The difference being, of course, The View have bagged their Top 20 hits before their debut long-player was ever released! These you know; ‘Superstar Tradesman’’s berating social climbers; ‘Wasted Little DJs’, the rousing ode to their hairdressing/DJ friends; ‘Same Jeans’, the dazzling highlight celebrating four days on the razz with no sign of slowing. Elsewhere, the perspective remains firmly in the jaded 20-year-old’s outlook – “I don’t intend to stop my drinking” Kyle Falconer sings in the folky ‘Don’t Tell Me’, “He made a mistake” he rants in the cutting ‘Skag Trendy’, “You try to get me to jump through your hoop but I won’t” he declares in the La’s-esque ‘Streetlights’. Rallying cries, all of them, to every disaffected soul in Britain – and beyond.
Before our very eyes, The View have matured into one of the most essential bands for years, and we suspect they’re only gonna get better. File this next to ‘Definitely Maybe’ and ‘Up The Bracket’ for the stirring passion and sheer attitude that kicks you up the arse – it’s THAT good. Vital, in fact.
