Artist: The View
Album: Hats Off To The Buskers
Label: 1965 Records
Year: 2007
Reviewed by: Kat aLan
On first listen The View sounds like typical Post Punk, with screechy guitar opening and driving drumbeat. Some very 70’s influenced guitar work. Not surprising, really, when you consider that they began as a pub band (The Bayview in Dundee – hence their name) doing covers of The Squeeze, Sex Pistols and the like. They supported bands like Babyshambles, Primal Scream and The Undertones.
As the music continues you find that they are more than simply cover-wannabees; it’s not all speed and noise – they can go quite quiet and lyrical with some jingly jangly almost skiffle-like sounds occasionally using harmonicas. They come across as a fresh-faced band, but with some dirt under their fingernails.
They could be the bastard grandchildren of Herman’s Hermits.
Some of their songs are light and bouncy, like ‘The Don’, almost whimsical using the guitar to create the beat much the way Reggae does.
‘Face for the Radio’ is gentle (may I even say beautiful) and melodic with lovely strumming and picking and backing vocals with ooh’s and aah’s. Then they suddenly go harder with a track called ‘Wasted Little DJ’s’.
On first listen I said “this is not music for picking up girlies to” but as the album progresses (and I mean progresses) I can see the possibilities, but they would have to have a brain. This is definitely car music – played loud with a bunch of your mates cruising from pub to pub whistling at grannies standing at the side of the road.
The View is very easy to listen to. It won’t make your ears bleed and you don’t have to be a rocket scientist.
It will make your feet tap and your head bob. I can absolutely imagine sitting in a pub with a table full of draught watching them live on stage, occasionally throwing beer on each other and the audience.
