They might be idiots, but at least Reef are happy idiots. How so? Well, they're the kind of no-brainer, surf-bum berks whose attempt at upping their glam-ante involves recording their latest album in Belgium.
Sheesh. You'd despair of poor old Reef if you weren't convinced that, though they couldn't read body language without their lips moving, they are the purest rock'n'roll band the world has to offer.
'Getaway' is another affirmation of how far Reef have managed not to come in the five years since they released their debut album, 'Replenish'. If anything, they're going backwards. While their first records recycled Pearl Jam and Rage Against The Machine clichis with casual abandon, for 'Getaway', Gary Stringer and co have left those deep waters behind them.
This is almost Bon Jovi - as musically retarded a record as even Reef are ever likely to make, and curse them if half of it isn't irresistibly ace too. 'Getaway' has no pretensions toward style or class - it doesn't know where it's going and wouldn't know how to get there even if it did. While Britain's hip glitterati are tentatively resurrecting Mvtley Cr|e and Poison as lost icons, Reef - stumbling around in their usual aimless manner - have accidentally beaten them to it. 'Set The Record Straight' is a close relation of the Jovi's 'Keep The Faith' - and an absolute treasure. The carousing hymn 'Superhero' plumbs similar depths of leather-and-lace darkness, and is further proof that Reef are masters of the inconsequential. With two thumbs raised to the pompous, disbelieving pop world, the West Country's belated answer to Lynyrd Skynyrd are almost unstoppable.
Problems only arise when they realise they're having too much fun. Once they start thinking about what they're doing, they lose it alarmingly. 'All I Want' - their stab at power-balladry - sounds dangerously like Mr Big's 'To Be With You', while the more anguished 'Hold On' includes one of the most embarrassing attempts at lyrical metaphor in modern pop, with the line: "Sailor/You've thought about your life and you're a sailor". Oh dear.
Happily, Stringer has had the sense to keep such silly outbursts to a minimum. They're at their best when they're going nowhere, locked in the moment and buried in the joy of being alive. The album's ebullient title track encapsulates this perfectly, as Stringer, in one of the most stunningly artless pieces of songwriting in history, sings about the thrill of booking a last minute, cheap summer holiday.
"I don't want to close my eyes/Even though I am tired/I don't want to sleep", he brays. No deadpan wit, no cynicism, no irony; Reef sound like they're rising to greet each dawn and can't wait for the day to begin. 'Getaway' is a record that, in its greatest moments, is a starburst of pure love, an atom bomb of total joy.
Don't look at it too close or it'll burn your eyes.
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