The Ordinary Boys - How To Get Everything You Ever Wanted In Ten Easy Steps

Celebrity status guarantees one thing - a media backlash. And there's none who deserve it more than grinning geezer Samuel Preston. But we'll leave that to tit-for-tat trash rags to distribute because How To Get Everything..., believe it or not, is The Ordinary Boys' third LP and, really, who cares about the rest of it? So what's the new music like? Well, gone are the choppy ska riffs and buoyant lyricism of old; replaced by charmless synths and an overindulgent sense of self-importance. The Lady Sovereign collaboration 'Nine2Five' is the one beacon of light in an album full of squirming, soulless filler like 'Walking On The Faultlines' and the insipidly horrific 'I Luv U'. With barrel scraping 'bonus' track 'Boys Will Be Boys' included for good marketing measure, this is a tragically limp record determined to ride the crest of an opportunist wave. Let the backlash begin. [Billy Hamilton]