If you’ve been waiting patiently for The Killers to return to frenetic indie fringes of our increasingly high eighties standards or were disappointed with the shite rolled out by Babyshambles then copping a load of The Rifles while you wipe off your indie tears just might be the best course of action. Hotly tipped to become a success story in 2005 this breakneck London 4-piece have already been charming the likes of former Creation Records boss, Alan McGee and Radio 1’s Zane Lowe. On top of all this, they’ve supported Graham Coxon and Madness.
So what are you likely to expect? Well expect something along the lines of this: some finger-shredding guitar, some quarter-pounder bass riffs, some snarling, top-drawer choruses and a good dose of social commentary. Where the Arctic Monkeys pursue the grim, DIY logic of their slice-of-life Northern uproar to the point where they become irritating, The Rifles use the feisty, articulate template wrought already by the likes of The Jam, The Smiths, the Libertines and The Dirty Pretty Things. Part rummage through the Garage, part rifle through the drawers of classic British Pop. It’s still about scruffy local boys doing scruffy local things (‘One Night Stand’, ‘Local Boy’, ‘Hometown Blues’) or coping with the first ghoulish, sleazy vagaries of fame (‘She’s Got Standards’) but the sharp, reflective prose of the more pace-breaking songs like ‘Spend A Lifetime’ and ‘Narrow Minded Social Club’ suggests Simon Baker and co. can dictate the pace of what they do.
A sleeper rattling carriage of top tunes thundering by like something coming out of Waterloo Tube Station at midnight, that’s what it is.