After a steady five-year career in Ireland, the Riptide Movement’s lives were transformed last year by a TV advert for Irish tourism, a major-label deal and a No 1 in Ireland with this album – which is now getting a wider release, as befits a band with universal potential. Having chased their dreams and got lucky, they play rousing, blue-collar rock to suit: somewhere between the Gaslight Anthem, Stereophonics and the Faces. These songs about hometowns and hedonism will accompany fists punching the air and beer being swilled. Big hearted vocalist/guitarist Mal Tuohy’s lyrics sound like pub declarations: “Will you just chill the fuck right out?” he tells someone on Animal; “You don’t think that your shit don’t stink”, he shouts in the swaggering You & I. The advert song – All Works Out – is an instantly stirring indie rocker with a lovely New Orderish bassline. No wheels are reinvented here, but it’s impassioned and anthemic – and they deserve their big moment.
