Dundee’s Cha Cha Heels are a band out of time in many ways with their well crafted songs that draw on influences such as the B52’s, Blondie, power-pop and the new wave, their mixture of high camp and low sleaze and their high octane, entertaining live shows.
However, what isn’t in doubt is their knack of producing catchy, at times, memorable songs and the way they draw audiences into the fun and spectacle of their live performances which have a fun, almost theatrical feel.
This five song E.P. is their initial calling card and it makes a decent fist of getting over some of the excitement of the live performance. Opening song ‘Red Light Lady’ pretty much sums up the Cha Cha Heels aesthetic with its big opening, thundering drums and a killer riff topped off by Katie-Louise and Cragg’s vocals, playing off one another and intertwining wonderfully. It’s utterly daft but somehow works with it’s knowingly dumb lyrics.
‘CC’s/WC’ has a pounding intensity , a strange, cryptic lyric and an infectiously catchy chorus, half sung, half chanted: “Amyl Nitrate / Amyl Nitrate / Carry me home” while ‘Taxi For One’ has a smoky, jazzy feel, beginning quite gently before a slick change in pace drags proceedings into a more frenzied sound giving the song a desperate, edgy feel. The song shifts all over the place in interesting ways rather than settling into a predictable groove.
‘Culture Vulture’ kicks off as a ballad with a gentle but strong vocal from Katie-Louise before developing into a ska derived skank. It’s probably my least favourite song on the E.P. though it has some of the most interesting lines including Katie-Louise’s ‘The spirit of my youth is wasted on you, it’s true’ and Cragg’s ‘Only the old can afford to be young’. Cha Cha Heels seem to be suggesting that the schisms between popular culture as a youth culture explosion and its mass ubiquity and intergenerational appeal in mainstream culture after five decades of moving from the margins to the centre are areas ripe for exploration.
‘One More Cigarette’ is probably my favourite song here with its dirty guitar intro and Cragg’s most unmediated vocal, It’s a song full of longing and regret but still projects a warmth with descending riffs, rolling piano and a smart spoken section. The end is possibly a little drawn out but it’s still pretty fine stuff.
In a different era Cha Cha Heels would produce brightly coloured vinyl singles, snappy radio hits and straddle the then very different worlds of the NME and Smash Hits. Now though, they are a welcome splash of dayglo and good times. Deadly serious but with a cheeky smile on their faces. Underneath the glitter and glam trash Cha Cha Heels know that as well as the good times there is a darker side to the world but that both sides are worth celebrating.
