This is unfair. To anyone who has read any of my other reviews, I must point out that there are bands I like, and songs I love. It’s not like I enjoy being critical, bands like Censored. (full stop intentional) turn me into someone I don’t want to be, the cynical writer hiding behind Microsoft Word with a distaste for anything remotely popular.
Right then. Censored. The guitar riff at the start sounds like that Thunderclap Newman song, “Something in the Air”. Not surprising, considering that the PR says that this band are influenced by the The Kinks. That’s influenced by, not plagiarising. Hey, I said nothing.
The lyrics don’t seem to mean anything in this song, just a series of convenient rhymes before a “ba-ba-ba” chorus. B-side “In The Presence of the Lord” features even stranger lyrics: “First my children you must kiss the sky”. The imagery is either abstract or very, very obvious in the narrative, sometimes it begins to feel like words are being used for the sake of using words.
In its defence though, the single buying public will enjoy this. For the middle-aged, it’s a throwback to The Kinks and The Beatles (and even Thunderclap Newman). For younger people, it’s a meaningless summer song to play Frisbee and drink cider to. It’s not challenging, it doesn’t have any wacky time changes and it’s not hard to listen to, and something tells me Censored.’s intention wasn’t to make such records.