THE GIROBABIES-Bus Stop Apocalypse CD

Glasgow band who are seriously creating a stir on the unsigned scene right now with their live gigs and antics and who are now about to create a similar stir with what amounts to a debut album. First thing to say is that they have a lead singer who sings with such a markedly distinctive Glaswegian accent that it makes the guy out of Twin Atlantic sound like he's had elocution lessons!! But it's that voice, that accent, that stunning delivery which makes its mark throughout every one of the stunning songs on this album.
The music is guitars-driven and generally quite hard-hitting with expansive riffs and rhythms along the way as opposed to lots of solos or lead work while the rhythm section generally drive it all along and hold it all together, as the singer unleashes a set of songs that have amazing lyrics, bit serious and humorous, giving you songs that are truly socially aware, contemporary, catchy and serious, some infused with an obvious humour that runs the gamut from laughing at others to laughing at yourself before feeling seriously sorry for yourself very quickly after. The album opens with the bouncing bomb that is “What Victor Said” as the band drive ahead through the briefest of verse in to this percussively heavy stumbling hook of a chorus as it's all propelled in punk-like fashion for the singer to stick the boot in (literally) to the song and give us two minutes of wonderful punk-pop violence. “Overheard In The Westend” (meaning Glasgow for all you namby Southerners) is a four minute number that opens with intoned vocals over a ringing guitar figure that shimmers before this howl of a vocal ushers in this fuzzed-to-feck guitar riff, huge deep bass and driving drumming as the band take it forward and the singer soars and hollers over the backing to give us another slice of observational songwriting that's brilliantly written, full of socially modern stories of now, with a hook at its heart once again, this time more melodramatic but explosively restrained at the same time, that surge of guitars sounding just awesome and a really strong song.
“Nightmare” is a four minute number that's slower and more atmospheric with a menacing slant to the vocal that's almost sneering, while still relating a song that's got a really disturbing yet totally addictive quality to it as the voice sings over slowly chiming guitar before the riff returns and then the whole thing surges along to reveal this biting stunner of a song that really seethes with anger and darkness as the arrangement veers between the flow of the dark verses and the drive of the powerful choruses. “Countdown To Tinnitus” kind of stumbles along with intent and conviction at mid-paced strength as the seriously accented vocal really unleashes a song that's got the off-putting feel you'd expect from its subject matter yet they've gone and created a song that's extraordinarily addictive as you just have to keep going amid the scorch of guitars, the darkness of the singing, the clever use of lyrics and the rolling mid-paced rhythm section that tumbles, bounces and shudders as it goes, a truly remarkable song for all its unnerving subject matter, and another chorus along the way, in fact several hooks throughout. “Idiots Guide To Karma” is a shuffling percussive led song that's got strummed acoustic guitar, throbbing bass and slowly galloping drumming as the vocal's right upfront and quite a mix of almost couldn't-give-a-toss set alongside bitingly observational lyrics as the electro-acoustic song rolls along and the vocals continue with barely a pause for breath.
The 4 minute “Shonzo The Security Guard” starts with an extended instrumental intro that's a fogbank of electronic sounding guitar textures set over bubbling electro-percussive and acoustic kick drum beats before the treated and evil sounding vocal intones the lyrics over a backing that's as claustrophobic as the lyrics and the arrangement of the song as echoes of keys enter the unnerving sea of sound and those relentless bouncing percussive beats. “I Want Answers” has an almost early Talking Heads feel to it only Scottish instead of American with a “Psycho Killer”-esque quality to it along with echoes of the same band's “Mind” track only the whole lot delivered with Scottish conviction and laconic cynicism over more solid beats, throbbing bass and assorted guitar textures and layers, the whole arrangement bouncing along in the vein of the early Talking Heads to stunning effect. “Drip Effect” is the most hard-hitting, heaviest song on the album as this morass of guitars just bursts into life, propelled by the most addictive set of rhythms that really charge forward albeit at solid mid-pace, while the vocals are sung and intoned and treated as it all gathers strength, head and layers to become this amazing sea of supercharged guitars, pounding bass, solid drumming and biting vocals, just a shame that it's only 2 and a half minutes, but leaving you wanting more. Finally we get “The Giros” which is a decidedly angry song to end the album with a wry observational look at modern society and themselves as the guitars storm forth, the rhythms stay solid and dependable, the vocals really give you the feel of the seamier, seedy, desperate and meaningless sides of life, so that you truly get the hopelessness of it all at the same time as a song that's truly sucking you in and refuses to spit you out, ending on a storm-force wave of explosive guitars work, rhythms and that snarl of a vocal – quite superb.
Overall, it's an album that leaves its mark the first time you play it and has you glued to it from start to finish, no matter how many times you play it.

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