0016. Ian Dury
New Boots and Panties!!

Still on the British isles and today it's Ian Dury, the geezer of Hit Me (With Your Rythm Stick)-fame, and a whole album with his random rantings and take on humor could very well be too much.

But it isn't.

New Boots And Panties!! clocks in att 36:30 and it's an entertaining half an hour plus. Dury's lyrics bounce between monotonic / moronic and (not so) sublimely delivered ramblings. I don't know wether to declare Dury stark raving bonkers or a genius, but I'm leaning towards the former as he carries the proud British tradition of insanity (i.e. Monty Python, early Madness and the likes): not too much tongue in cheek but instead a heavy dose of absurdist storytelling while the band delivers its goodies with influences from a variety of genres.

It's also surprising: on the first listen I get a little bit WTF?! when the mellow Sweet Gene Vincent ends abruptly, just to get it blown up in my face as the song explodes in a 50's style rock'n'roll frenzy.

My favourite track is the opener Wake Up And Make Love With Me, but If I Was With Woman and Blockheads also deserves mentions.

New Boots And Panties!! is not the album that will change your life, but it's the album that'll take you out for a night at the pub, taking a piss out've the daft bastards (any daft bastards will do) and getting you so smashed you can't lie down without falling over, all the while with that slightly disturbing smile on its face.