Album Reviews |

MJ Hibbett & The Validators

Regardez, Ecoutez ET Repetez 8 ( 2009 )
Being Happy Doesn't Make You Stupid / Do the Indie Kid / Do More, Eat Less / Best Behaviour / All the Good Men / We Can Start Having Fun / Red Black Gold / My Boss Was in an Indie Band Once / It Only Works Because You're Here / One of the Walls of My House Fell In / We're Old and We're Tired (And We Want to Go Home) / Leicester's Trying to Tell Me Something

'Hey there Emo boy, give yourself a smile' sings MJ Hibbett & The Validators and why not? 'At the height of Britpop, I found myself in France' says MJ Hibbett on second track, 'Do The Indie Kid' and fans of The Wedding Present are probably smiling already. This isn't a band I was familiar with incidentally even though they've been around awhile. In fact this is the groups eighth album of sorts since 2000, quite a prolific run by anyone's standards. The band were formed in 1999 when MJ Hibbett recruited Tim Pattison from indie rock legends Prolapse. In 2003 they managed a 'Record Of The Year' gong from Rolling Stone's 'Well Hung At Dawn' column. MJ Hibbett has been compared to Billy Bragg in the press but i'm thinking Hefner, Wedding Present and Half Man, Half Biscuit. The opening cut for instance is Wedding Present circa 1988 complete with proper old-school indie production. The second track 'Do The Indie Kid' is funny and silly and the joke won't last forever but the tune is charming in any event.

A word about the physical CD product before I carry on. We get a standard plastic case but the CD itself contains some great multimedia. We get lyrics, sleevenotes, chords, a mini album of demos and a magazine. MJ Hibbett may not sell hundreds of thousands of albums but these extras are a message for major labels, give us some extra value for money in this modern digital age and we'll be more likely to part with our hard earned cash. 'Best Behaviour' is great and I thought this type of jangly indie-pop went out of fashion around 1988. What a surprise and a what a gift for music lovers this is right through to the closing track, a seven minute 'epic' titled 'Leicester's Trying To Tell Me Something'. A well-worn Phil Spector drum-beat, everyday story-telling lyrics and a few louder dramatic sections for good measure. Epic in the way only thinly recorded yet massively fun indie-music of a particular vintage can be.

Add A Comment?