Whatever happened to Mod? With its embrace of soul, jazz and R&B, and a cosmopolitan view of both fashion and the world, this was once the most forward-looking of youth cults. Sadly, as exemplified by this, the second album by Watford quartet The Spitfires, the movement has backed itself into a cul-de-sac of conservatism, convention and parochialism.
One would’ve hoped that the impending demise of The Enemy – themselves an ersatz version of The Jam – would’ve closed the door on such a moribund take on the genre but alas the refried Britpop of the likes of A Better Life and The Suburbs (We Can’t Complain) show that ham-fisted social observation is still with us.
To truly grasp the unimaginative and dreary fare on offer here, simply picture a desert boot stamping on a human face forever, or a backfiring Lambretta spluttering to a stop. If only this lot would.
