Drowned in Sound

Search



goldie lookin chain glc safe as fuck lp sleeve
no votes
?
by Andy Robbins
  • Type: Album
  • Release date: 19/09/2005
  • Label: Atlantic

Dylan Thomas, perhaps Wales’ most celebrated alcoholic, once stood back, cast his poetic gaze across the town of his birth and declared Swansea “…the most romantic town I know…crawling, sprawling, slummed, unplanned, jerry-villa ‘ed, and smug suburbed by the side of a long and splendid-curving shore.” So what the hell happened a few miles down the road in Newport where “…it was about last week, it really got me thinking about how your missus goes nuts when we go drinking. Last week she ended up on a binge, she got off her tits and showed the bouncers her minge”? They may rival Bernard Manning for crudity, but it appears the British public has taken Goldie Lookin Chain into its collective heart – minge and all.

Yet for all their Poundstretcher bling and smutty seaside humour, the one joke that got them started may not be enough to get them much further. Never mind a careers advisor, just ask The Cheeky Girls. At times GLC veer far too close to their subjects of mockery for comfort. 'R‘n’B' in particular is a classic example of the pot calling the kettle black. The lyrics may poke fun at the insipid boy bands (Blue, A1, Westlife) that think a few wrist flicks and open shirts give them eternal free entry into Yates wine lodges the length and breadth of Britain, but at the end of the day it sounds exactly like those people they are ripping the piss out of.

GLC are a band who excel live on stage thanks to their larger-than-life characters, something which their memorable festival performances will pay testament to, but on record without that presence much of the songs lose a lot of their humour. But that’s not to say there aren’t plenty of quality grooves and beats that would sit comfortably on a Beastie Boys album. The Grange Hill theme tune has been reborn as 'Charmschool' – combining classic old-skool beats, the acrid haze of skunk and the ghost of Zammo about to start back on the smack.

Yet as good as it is, even that falls short of album highlight 'Bad Boy Limp' that sounds like Public Enemy causing a riot in the small claims court. Forget the National Accident Helpline, next time you stand on a rake or fall off the top of a roof, just give this a spin and your benefits will be sorted for a decade. Even the single 'Your Missus Is A Nutter' rises above the cheesiness of its spandex guitar line to leave you with a secret urge to sleep with the overweight barmaid with the dolphin tattoos who’s been giving you the eye from the corner of your local Wetherspoon's.

While GLC’s second album undoubtedly contains some fantastically witty and accurate observations on modern British life, would a BBC3 sitcom not have been a far greater platform from which to launch the next stage of the group’s assault on popular culture?

  • Goldie Lookin Chain 6 / 10
Words: Andy Robbins

Goldie Lookin Chain - Safe As Fuck

"GLC’s second album"? Isn't this their fifth or sixth album?

Re: Goldie Lookin Chain - Safe As Fuck

only the second to be released on a record label though.
all the others were self-circulated CDRs.

Goldie Lookin Chain - Safe As Fuck

"...that sounds like Public Enemy causing a riot in the small claims court. Forget the National Accident Helpline, next time you stand on a rake or fall off the top of a roof, just give this a spin and your benefits will be sorted for a decade. "


*LOL* What a great couple of sentences

Goldie Lookin Chain - Safe As Fuck

Dylan Thomas is so biting about Wales, "The land of my fathers? My fathers can keep it." Brilliant.

For GLC, I lost interest in them after their first admittedly funny song.

Goldie Lookin Chain - Safe As Fuck

Boring just like the Darkness the Joke isnt funny anymore.

Goldie Lookin Chain - Safe As Fuck

GLC still rule. Still like them. Have some early stuff on my computer if anyone wants to check it out.

Re: Goldie Lookin Chain - Safe As Fuck

i heard the "charmschool" song on a webcast on tiscali. have to say, it was very good. I like the song about claims direct as well that was fucking funny shit. I didnt know they had done loads of CD-Rs. Is there old stuff (i suppose thats what it would be) good?

Re: Goldie Lookin Chain - Safe As Fuck

The Greatest Hits was a compilation of the best of the older stuff but some of them sound completely different especially 21 ounces. Some tracks are available on the old part of www.youknowsit.co.uk

Goldie Lookin Chain - Safe As Fuck

Yep. Comedy doesn't belong in music, usually because it's not funny. But GLC are funny. I like.

Goldie Lookin Chain - Safe As Fuck

The joke sure wears thin after more than two listens, and as for their 'memorable festival performances' I happen to have seen them and memorable isn't the first words that spring to mind.

Re: Goldie Lookin Chain - Safe As Fuck

GLC are one of those bands where its fun to listen for a bit but as soon as you don't find it funny anymore thats it. I've got the first album (greatest hits) but as after a couple of listens it got put in the rack and now gathers dust. Sayin that when its still fresh its bloody funny.

but live...

they cheer me up like nobody else! I think I'm avoiding Greatest Hits even though it is a fiver in Fopp and I kind of want it, just so I don't get bored by the time they tour again. Awesome stuff. Similar to my thoughts on the Kaiser Chiefs in a way, but more druggie and Welsh.





© DrownedinSound.com | From the Archive - DiS meets Panda Bear: "I feel like the music I like the best is exclusively pop stuff"