Album Review: The Spitfires - Songs From The Debt Generation

A curious amalgamation of Madchester swagger and Perth sensibility, The Spitfires drop their debut long-player to a steadily growing fanbase following the release of two straight-up punk-rock EPs and some raucous live shows. Songs From The Debt Generation has enough fresh, likeable but spiteful punk 'tude and stripped back charm to ensure their flock of fans have not been following blindly.

Opener Radio Control is a firm kick-in-the-head intro to The Spitfires' sound; clean guitars and bass noodling with Manchurian frontman Sean Regan's drawl winging it over the top. Skeletons and 5000 Friends get the repetitive call to arms happening with the latter's fuzzy guitar lines and lazy drum fills galloping to the mid-section, which kind of plods along trodden paths in Everybody Else and Greek Riot Squad. The standout is Ravensthorpe, a perfect combination of clear-cut guitar spiralling off in all directions winding down to full, cohesive chords with a high octave bassline that underlines the whole sea shanty-like flavour. It's pretty difficult not to pull off that devil-may-care swagger with Regan at the mic singing “We're poor, so broke, tell me what went wrong, where'd our riches go?”

While some progression beyond their bare and basic song structures wouldn't go astray, there's much to love and it's fair to say the punk spirit lives on in The Spitfires and their followers, who have more than enough to go apeshit over in today's world. Channelling a bit of Regan's Sheffield neighbours, Arctic Monkeys, while levelling relevant quips at the state of the economy and espousing that we're all basically screwed, it's hard not to start flipping imaginary two-finger salutes at the authorities.