REVIEW: Shack, HMS Fable (London)
- Tim Kennedy
The history of Shack has been one of false starts. Originating from the ashes of early 80s luminaries Pale Fountains, Michael Head, principal songwriter started the band circa the time of the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays. Two albums have appeared in the U.K. under their moniker before HMS Fable, including the classic Mersey pop album Waterpistol. However live outings by the band have often been shambolic with the results of extensive drug abuse often in evidence.
Probably the nearest album to this in spirit is the eponymous La's album of 1990. The light feel and melodic guitars put Shack in the same bracket as their fellow Liverpudlians.
The nautical theme of this album is a reference to heroin addiction. Sailing in an old-fashioned clipper is a metaphor for escape afforded by the accursed poppy. Thus in "Lends Some Dough" the hero begins in some dive surrounded by the evidence of drug abuse, trying to cadge a few pounds to restart his life (or perhaps get more smack) and all of a sudden is transported to the high seas in a four masted schooner.
The title track extends the metaphor, with a group of smack heads transformed into the crew of a sailing ship run by an avuncular captain who affords his crew much access to the rum ration. The musical setting for this song is sumptuous with tinkling guitars and folky motifs allied to a gentle melody. "Underneath the wings of a giant dove".
It has to be said that the subject matter of this album is utterly distasteful, but in terms of modern day guitar pop this is as good an album as has been heard in the past five years - with possibly only Waterpistol to compete with it.
Light and space are well in evidence here despite the grim subject matter. Another track "Streets Of Kenny" takes the listener to Ireland in search of the hero's friends and another bag of drugs, however the music is uplifiting using Irish folk motifs. Like the sea, Ireland is ever present in the scouse psyche. The singer is clearly struggling with his urge to take drugs and the music echoes that fight.
"I Want You" sounds very similar to some recent Teenage Fan Club material, working a neat melody around simple chords, and the vocal even sounds not disimilar to TFC's Norman.
"Since I Met You" starts with a sinister scouse nursery rhyme about a drug deal gone wrong ending in a shooting "Poor lamb, should have been home for tea." The main narrative describes a supermarket robbery with a fake gun, concentrating on the fear in the eyes of the checkout girl. The chorus is another soaring blissful lovelorn "And I can't think of anything since I met you".
Shack are the band that La's fans hoped Cast would be; they play glorious 12-string guitar melodies and evoke a mood of freedom and space. Waterpistol was the finest, most underrated album of the 90s and now surely HMS Fable's success will see Shack finally get off the starting blocks.
