Flamboyant Bella - Absolutely Wankered

(Muso's Guide, December 19, 2008)

Single review

The newest, cleanest, freshest-faced youngsters to offer themselves up for sacrifice to the dirty gods of pop, Flamboyant Bella hail from Hitchin in Hertfordshire. So we’ve established that they’re a small town, provincial band - but that alone is no excuse for ‘Absolutely Wankered’.

The band, a four-piece - one girl, three boys - are self-confessed proponents of ‘dirty pop’, are four singles in to what can therefore be termed their nascent pop career.

The band’s previous single, ‘Touch’ saw singer Flo Kirton take the helm Kate Nash-style. It was full of smart lyrics, flirtation and not a little pop genius.

For reasons which escape normal folk, Flamboyant Bella have nevertheless decided upon ‘Absolutely Wankered’ as their fourth single. Tuneful Britpop underpinned by keyboards, it is, in essence, a ‘Tubthumping’ for the new generation, telling the tale of a drunken night out.

The song is heralded by a pounding bassline which expands to envelope synthesizer histrionics worthy of Pulp’s Candida Doyle.

Singer James McBreen’s vocal is carefully affected, although on this binge-drinking theme it does become incredibly grating. The lyrics are smartly sarcastic - “I’ve only had nine cans and now I can’t feel my hands… I feel great but I’m looking a state” - but the chorus line is one which seems only too obviously aimed at the pub crowds at the end of the night - “Absolutely, utterly, completely fucked and I can’t see a thing/Absolutely wankered I feel fucking great, get me another drink.”

The rhyming couplets can be snappy in the verses but really, the story that they tell is a sad indictment of British culture, and an unpleasant window onto time spent with Flamboyant Bella.

In comparison to their previous singles, the novelty strains of ‘Absolutely Wankered’ are disappointing and not a little insulting. It will no doubt find its way onto playlists at indie discos for a time, but will soon be forgotten, leaving Flamboyant Bella to fight another day - let’s just hope they clean up their act for their next outing.