The Mighty Mighty Bosstones: Pay Attention

Herald rating: * *

(Island)

Review: Russell Baillie


And from the two-tone department ... this umpteenth album from the veteran Boston ska'n'roll band arrives after their long-time-coming success of last album Let's Face It and predicably takes an ain't-broke-don't-fix-it approach.

Mixing guitars which swerve from ska chop to bar-band chords, bouncy brass and the voice of garrulous gravel-voiced frontman Dick Barrett, there's a quaint appeal to their hand-me-down approach.

But even the highlights So Sad to Say (Iggy meets Dexy's Midnight Runners), High School Dance (an amusing alma-mater revenge ditty) and Riot on Broad Street (an American-Irish Pogues) can't stop many of the 16 tracks verging on sameness. Still, it's a rigorously energetic uniformity. .

The Elsewhere column has taken a week off.