Welcome to extreme rock makeovers! For the last few years The Like have been trading in a quietLOUD grunge-rock thing with some Blondie-like sass thrown in for good measure. And, it was really rather good. Their label (Geffen) seem to have tried everything (they’ve been support for just about everyone on the rise), but for some reason we’ve just not bought it.
So, time for some serious repositioning. Out goes the California hippy-chick schtick and in comes Mark Ronson and a 60s girl group schtick.
Despite the obvious ersatz nature of this directional change (there’s the Cher one, the MTM one, the Twiggy one…) we get treated to a bristling set of top pop-tastic tunes. It’s the new album Release Me from start to finish, in order. We get bargain basement Nancy and Lee in ‘Wishing You Were Dead’. The plastic Partridge Family of dirty stop-out anthem ‘Walk Of Shame’. And the pseudo-Merseybeat title track. You see a pattern here?
“We have no more songs” (erm, what about your first album?) “so here’s a Stones cover”. Ultimately, this is like the Pippettes with better production. Just try not to remember that they really just nicked their act from Tracey Ullman.
Yes, there’ll be 101 bands (probably within shouting distance of this venue) doing a similar thing, but harder, louder and better. Yes, it has all the authenticity of a Woolworth hippy wig. But, it’s a thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining experience. And, to be honest, were the new album to break through (and, say, be this year’s Back To Black) it wouldn’t be a bad thing.