Hard-Fi: Stars of CCTV : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

When Hard-Fi claim they're "making movies out on the street," they mean it: They're singing about security cameras. This is petty-criminal music for bored teenagers stuck in a nowhere U.K. town and ready for action. Hard-Fi come from Staines, the same British city where Ali G claims to reside, which gives you a good idea of why they're so desperate to get out. Their Clash-inspired punk funk bites music ideas from the Specials and the Happy Mondays, but singer Richard Archer gets his songs from street life, dead-end jobs, run-ins with the law. "Cash Machine" and "Living for the Weekend" are chant-along rants about killing yourself all week to get deeper in debt. In "Stars of CCTV," Hard-Fi grab the loot and strike a pose for the surveillance cam, because it's the only eye in town that doesn't ignore them. It's the best shoplifting anthem since Jane's Addiction's "Been Caught Stealing."

ROB SHEFFIELD

(Posted: Mar 21, 2006)

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4of 5 Stars

Hard-Fi are different from most bands in the UK at the moment. However they don't stray form the formula too much: Chanting choruses, sing along lyrics, loud guitars, songs that today's youth can relate to. Their lyrics refer to about drink, crime, relationships, crap jobs and even the trapped feeling of living in a sattelite town (Staines) of London. Basically their writing music for chavs with a rock/pop twist. High points of the album are anthemic songs Hard To Beat, Living For The Weekend, Cash Machine and slower numbers Stars Of CCTV and Move On Now. The band gets political on Middle Eastern Holiday in which they tell the story of a young British soldier regretting his decision to got to war. This album is definitely worth checking out.

Aug 5, 2007 07:09:46

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