Album Review: Fat White Family - Serfs Up!

“Imperial phase” was a term invented by Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys to describe the sense of creative freedom pop stars develop following major league success. That Fat White Family should embark on their imperial phase on Serfs Up! – an album on which they flitter through genres with reckless abandon – speaks volumes about their confidence. Anyone who doubts their ambition should check out the lavish Game Of Thrones-style video for lead single Feet, a sort of celebration of doomed but high cheekboned British youth.

Serfs Up! is a stylistic devil-may-care free-for-all featuring the seasick cocktail reggae of Rock Fishes, sinister lounge-core and the lush yet creepy chamber-pop of Oh Sebastian. It’s the kind of 'clever' approach that screams, "Come back to mine and check out the size of my… Record collection. Isn’t it exotic?" The risks pay off on Kim’s Sunsets and Fringe Runner, which retain Fat White Family’s patented seediness in wonderfully disgusting smears. But too often they sound out of their element or like booze-addled tourists. Serfs Up! is a record that only occasionally plays to Fat White Family’s strengths.