The Explosion – 'Black Tape' (Virgin) Released 28/03/05

The Explosion are a punk band. You should know this before we go any further. Virtually every song on this album sounds like a song by another band. A different band you already know. The Clash are on here, Audioslave, a little bit of The Strokes. Hell, Busted are even here. Yes, BUSTED for ****’s sake. But let’s give it a chance first eh?

It all starts off pretty well, with a Clash-type number in 'Deliver Us', which is a pretty good punk song. 'Filthy Insane' is excellent, starting off like The Strokes, then turning into 'Silver Machine' by Hawkwind, but still with its own personality. So far so good. 'Here I Am', the first single from the album, is actually quite disappointing compared with the first two tracks, and probably wasn’t the best choice for a first single. The best song by far is “No Revolution”, which has the best tune, the most to say, and therefore qualifies as the most “punk” song on the album. This would have been a much better choice for the first single, but it seems that punk is not what The Explosion want their first single to sound like. The blurb which comes with the album says that 'Here I Am' is “poppy as hell”. If they wanted to release a pop single, they should have settled for either 'Heavyweight', or preferably, 'Mothers Cry', so poppy you can practically hear Simon Cowell writing a blank cheque to acquire it for McFly. “It’s alright, cause good friends never die, even if we make our mothers cry”. Honestly, I ask you. Punk?

'I Know' doesn’t sound like Audioslave, but it does sound like their singer, Chris Cornell. There is also the obligatory anti-war song, which actually turns out to be excellent. All in all in fact, this is a good album. Even the poppy songs are good pop songs. The only problem with The Explosion is they don’t seem too sure who they are yet, but as soon as they figure it out, be ready, cause there’s talent here, and they could be amazing.