Captain - The Social, 2 August 2006

Words: Paul Klotschkow

Apparently it seems that guilty pleasures are all the rage nowadays, especially when it comes to music. This is probably why Captain think they can get away with sounding like the bastard child of two of the eighties worse peddlers of AOR blue eyed soul, Deacon Blue and Pre-Fab Sprout. They were terrible the first time around, we don’t need their type coming back inflicting allsorts of aural Israeli chemical attacks on our ears, especially sung by someone who keeps his hat on all night. You are inside; there is no need for a hat!

Most of tonight’s music is bland and tepid beyond belief, the sort of stuff you can imagine gets played on Virgin Radio’s drive time show. It’s all very nice and pleasant, but there is no real meat stuck to the bones. All of the songs are covered in wistful guitars and shimmery keyboards, which all come across as pretty. But Captain lack any kind of edge to their music that makes them really stand out from the crowd. They will probably do a second album then get dropped, which to be honest on tonight’s performance, will be no loss to the vast musical landscape.

A gimmick that Captain seem to incorporate is to have male and female vocals singing at the same time. This does make for some interesting harmonies, but you kind of think that they only do it to act as a distraction from the atrocities that are actually taking place up on stage, and that you would rather be licking piss off nettles, or worse, be at a Rooster gig than be anywhere near here tonight.

Captain, I hope your ship sinks without trace.

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