These are tough times for the wake-up-sheeple school of rock music – the kind that is predicated on delivering profound enlightenment to the enslaved masses over howling guitars. As Hull band Life demonstrate deftly with their debut album – the dryly titled Popular Music – that’s because it is difficult to avoid sounding incredibly dated with it. At times, you get the impression their retro stylings could be deliberate – on Euromillions, echoes of the Clash’s Know Your Rights are too loud to ignore – but generally the critiques of consumerism and anonymous society feel generic and vague. More interesting is the band’s sonic stew, which is intermittently reminiscent of everyone from the New York Dolls and Brummie Oasis knock-offs the Twang to 80s Californian punk and Buzzcocks – the latter, specifically, in the brilliant Rare Boots. It makes for a conflicted listen: while the sentiments feel stale, Life prove there is no best-before date on punk’s gleeful energy.
