[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Album Review
Sergeant Buzfuz High Slang Blang Records
Article written by
Ged M - Feb 22, 2009
Sergeant Buzfuz
Sergeant Buzfuz’s fourth album crams in songs, styles and instruments, moving from Robyn Hitchcock-style pop (the very moreish ‘God to Holloway’) to the Velvet Underground in space (‘Mothership Zelda’) and dramatic Turkish stomping folk tunes (‘My Drinking Friends’). As ever, there are plenty of smart and cutting lyrics to get your teeth into: Joe Murphy can do sensitive but he’s much better when he’s laying into Camden hipsters (‘Cockney Rebel’) in and corporate sponsorship (‘Rebellion with Fries’) or, indeed, the papacy; High Slang contains another three episodes of sex, corruption and Sunday worship in ‘Here Come The Popes’ (bringing the total up to five so far). There are a couple of missteps, notably the celebrity namedropping and Jimmy Saville impression(!) on ‘The Back Of My Cab’ that really should have been kept for live shows (if that) but overall this is testimony to the mad English whimsy machine (think Television Personalities or Matthew Sawyer) that is Sergeant Buzfuz.