TV Advertising
TV Smith was the driving force behind one of the most underrated bands to come out of the first wave of punk, as frontman of The Adverts they produced a couple of great albums and had a minor hit single with 'Gary Gilmore's Eyes'. Since then TV Smith has continued to record and perform and nearly 30 years since his first record hit the shops he's back with a new album, his first since 2003's 'Not A Bad Day'.
Opening number 'Good Times are Back' is a great song, big guitars and a big melody show that TV Smith still has the songwriting ability that he first aired with The Adverts. It's just a shame that this doesn't set the tone for much of what follows, a few more like this opener would give the album much more of an impact.
'Bring the Bull Down' keeps up the tempo with a thumping drum beat and whilst not as strong as the opening track it's still an impressive start. After this promising start though comes a succession of tracks that are weaker by comparison. That's not to say that they are bad by any means, 'Small Rewards' is decent (with a nice middle eight) and certainly the lyrical content of songs like 'Not in My Name' deserves to be heard. It's really a question of dynamics and putting together a collection of songs that works as a whole and on this front it doesn't quite succeed. Admittedley there are highlights such as 'Second Class Citizens' but none of them have the initial impact of 'Good Times are Back'.
'Right Hands Rise' is just too obvious, it's more of a third generation punk anthem, which is all well and good but TV Smith is a better songwriter than this song would suggest and put next to other tracks on the album it falls short. 'Ark of Suburbia' is far better, well constructed and instantly more memorable but it's followed by 'More Than This', which is a rather trundling affair.'Misinformation Overload' really is an album of peaks and troughs, there's nothing bad here but the better songs are invariably followed by weaker ones and as such it just doesn't flow well.
Overall it's a fairly good album, the good songs are catchy and worth further listens and maybe this is one of those albums that grows on you the more you play it?