April 27, 2011

Album Review: Fight Like Apes - 'The Body Of Christ And The Legs Of Tina Turner'

Losing sight of their youthful days and not yet fully fledged with grown-up emotion

6 / 10 ‘Cult concern’ probably isn’t an insult to Dublin gang FLApes, who’ve been lacing their bright, bracing strop-songs with references to Star Wars, The A-Team, Robocop and other such 20-something cultural comforters for five years now. Massively inappropriate, they specialise in laugh-out-loud moments nestled up against vicious angst.

It’d take a stony soul to stifle a snort at the straight-faced smuggling of lines like “my well-read friends inform me that I was a cunt” on the furious ‘Pull Off Your Arms And Let’s Play In Your Blood’. Compared to past efforts, though, a teary weariness seems to dominate, as on ‘Thank God You Weren’t Thirsty (Lightbulb)’ with its howls of “I tried to turn you on”.

The album lacks that bouncy, bratty energy of old, while never really nailing a more grown-up emotional register. Even so, glad that they’re still there.

Emily Mackay

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