The Zutons - 'Who Killed the Zutons' (Deltasonic) Released 19/04/04

So who did kill The Zutons? Though The Corals prints did seem to be all over the gun that killed the band who released ‘Devil’s Deal’ last year, its more likely that the ‘Liverpool scene’, and the farrago which surrounded it like a billow of class c smoke, is actually to blame.

But if this album proves anything, it should prove that the act of murder is a good thing. Though distinctly Liverpudlian, the arrival of new Zutonian baring a saxophone (Abi Harding), gave the band the opportunity to paint the vivid pictures that flash through vocalist Dave McCabe’s mind. Taking the ordinary, and making it extraordinary is a talent that is possessed by many who lived in the city during the grim years, and McCabe is no exception to the rule. On tracks like ‘Dirty Dancehall’, he paints the “city of culture” in the grainiest horror show colors he can find, possessing the grace and slickness of a forties hoity-toity gathering, with the street savvy of one who’s walked through Liverpool’s Toxteth late at night. ‘Havana Gang Brawl’ is West Side Story dressed in a red or blue football shirt.

Beguilingly, the band have left behind the smoke stained western qualities of songs like ‘Creepin’ an a Crawlin’, and replaced them with horror show pop. ‘Pressure Point’ assaults your ears till you reach yours, leading you onto ‘You Will You Won’t’, which practically begs you to move your feet, with a novel Zutonian twist. And the band can do compassion and heartbreak too, with the simple off-centre balladry of ‘Confusion’.

No one expected the poor mans Coral to rise from the ashes, but without the rest of the city noticing, the band has risen, reformed and are about to wreak havoc on a world unprepared for the dancing there is to be done. We would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for these pesky kids.