The Carpettes are back with “The Carpettes”, their brand new and first States-side released album.
“This is one of those rare cases where a band gets back together and is as good, if not even better than before” (Alan Wright, Cosmik Debris).
Having started in the now magical year of 1977, The Carpettes all but invented pop-punk, debuting on the Small Wonder Records label with the classic ’77 7” “How About Me And You”. After a couple of albums on Beggars Banquet, the group eventually split up in 1981.
Having played some festivals and the occasional gig, The Carpettes released “Fair Play To ‘Em” (2002), their first album in some 2 decades, on a small Japanese label.
“Fair Play To ‘Em” gained critical acclaim from all corners of the globe and The Carpettes suddenly found themselves with a new lease of life. Fans in droves, new and old, tuned in to the super catchy pop-punk sound that has always been the band’s trademark. Make no mistake about it, The Carpettes invented the sound that put Green Day & Co. in the charts.
“The Carpettes”, named so as the band believes it perfectly captures everything they stand for, comprises 13 new self-penned songs.
Mick Mercer: “It’s funny. The Carpettes still have all the bounce and commercial verve they always did during halcyon Punk daze, but you might say that lyrically they are finally coming to terms with matters of age. Matters of dignity. As guitars crunch melodically and the rhythm hums along, George does a light snarl through ‘Don’t Throw It All Away’. Cheerful buggers. Oh, it all ends on a slightly more defiant note, but really! And you’d be wrong to think they’d changed with age, as they’ve always had a cynical view. A “Yeah, whatever, you bastard”-view on life, and that’s what still crackles through the new tracks on offer. That’s one of the reasons they’re one of my favourite bands, still.
What might strike people as a familiar style, listening to this, wasn’t actually something terribly common back then. And The Carpettes did the Punk and Pop thing better than the other UK punk bands because it was all Punk energy. They didn’t make the songs lighter or ‘jolly’ because they were a Punk band suddenly doing a poppy number. And they weren’t weak shite like the Powerpop rubbish. They should have been seen as a rougher Jam, if anything,
‘Nothing At All’ is the stark Punky pop they’ve always done in a jaunty manner, underpinned with lyrical grit, and if a theme develops on this record it’s the repetitive nature of the lyrics, concerning disappointments with people, and new guitarist Jimmy Devlin seems to have the right touch.
It all grows and glows during ‘Taking It Bad!’ with a crisp bite, and ‘I Don’t Like You!’ is more standard punk, but done The Carpettes Way, with a sing-along structure that will throw you back to your schooldays, but also with the obligatory instant choppy chorus and frisky guitar break. It sounds like the past, but full of modern flavour, except that most bands half their age don’t have this energy on record, which is just bizarre.
‘The Way It is Today’ also has that throbby angst they do which other bands never quite matched, and it’s got another fabulous chorus. Stranger still, the drums even sound like The Carpettes used to. It’s the nature of the trio, I guess, in that when there’s a style it survives.”
“The Carpettes” is produced by the band themselves:
George Maddison: Bass, vocals
Jimmy Devlin: Guitar, vocals
Jim Cosgrove: Drums
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