Stars of CCTV : Hard-Fi : Review : Rolling Stone

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."