Cold In Berlin -‘Give me Walls.’ (2076)

This CD turned up with a pretty small press release. Not a big loss (particularly when so many of them are worth nothing more than a snide laugh before hitting the recycling bin). It meant that i listened without prejudice and at face value -and my jaw hit the floor pretty quickly.

In the course of 32 minutes and ten tracks, Cold In berlin reveal themselves to be a kick ass rock’n’ roll band. I have no idea what this band are like live (yet) but this album is little short of incendiary. Forget all the usual cliches that seem to apply to female fronted bands (at best due to awe that stops people thinking straight; at worst down to hideous misogyny)…quite frankly, it doesn’t matter who the singer sounds like.

What you need to know is that this is a powerful album that takes no prisoners right from the opening ‘God I Love You.’ My new heroine kicks off the album spitting ‘I had a girl and she was perfect/so I decided I’d fuck her. And even though she had a boyfriend/oh god I knew I had to have her.’ the swearing will doubtless offend some, but the ‘fuck you’ attitude of the whole band that runs right through the album, particularly on tracks like ‘White Horse’ and ‘Break My Bones’ will prove irresistibile to many.

This is punk as it ought to be, fresh as anything and totally INYOURFACE. I may be too old to need a soundtrack to youthful rebellion but I will know I have truly hit my midlife crisis when I no longer want to listent to music as exciting and frankly, sexy, as this is.

I’ve long held that a debut single should sound like a manifesto, a call to arms. This debutu album has the power to spark a revolution.

****1/2

Give Me Walls is released by 2076 thorugh Cargo on November 29.

No mp3s cleared to post at present, alas, but here’s three videos that will give you a taste…

Cold in Berlin – ‘Total Fear’

Cold In berlin -‘White Horse’

Cold In berlin -‘If You Take Me Apart.’