The View - Cheeky for a Reason

Releasing an album every year is a rarity nowadays, and given the change of perspective that 2011's Bread and Circuses produced for me, a risky endeavour indeed. In them good old days it was common of course for bands to showcase multiple albums a year, but then the commercial aspect of it wasn't too taxing, and promotional deals and touring demands were fewer inbetween. For the View, however, this is their fourth album in five years, and whilst they've never really pulled off a classic, the quality remains consistently good (odd blip Which Bitch? aside).

Being a UK indie band of course the claims and brags are equally persistent; lead singer Kyle Falconer described Cheeky for a Reason's sound as "Fleetwood Mac's Rumours done by The Clash". A far more apt description may be "Oasis's songs done by not-Oasis", but then again Beady Eye were just terrible weren't they?

'How Long' gets the album going with gusto and a bit of a Brianstorm drum-heavy beat, and a fairly followable melody, which can't be said of most mid-00s landfill indie groups still going today. Their usual fare returns though with 'AB (We Need Treatment)', a tune not too dissimilar to last year's Grace, which isn't a bad thing at all. "Don't you worry about my AABB poetry", Falconer sings a little...uh...cheekily. The first glimpse of a touch of classic rock that Falconer promised surfaces on 'Hold on Now', which borrows a touch of Rhiannon's melody and breezy guitar solos. Sounds step another decade backwards on 'Anfield Row', a pretty rock & roll ballad with simple "living without you" romantic lyrics. 


"I'm God's son, just a bullet gone wrong" Falconer sings on 'Bullet', an end-of-chorus lyric that has the fortune (or misfortune, depending on how you view the former Take That man's music) of reminding me of Robbie Williams' Come Undone. The lyrics verge on silly in 'Bunker (Solid Ground)' - "stop talking on the phone when the cable's on my neck" - but it's another fine, hummable tune. Even that gets pushed to the listenable limits though on 'The Clock', a British-rock-by-numbers (even down to the turnstile chants in the chorus) dullard. There's then a piano interlude. Called 'Piano Interlude'. Yeah.

Thankfully 'Hole in the Bed' has a much stronger and upbeat feel about it than almost all of the previous tracks. "Unlike these pills you really cleared my head" is about the most original lyric they can manage (it's followed by "you're the answer to my prayers/ the only one that cares", for Christ's sake) but the whole Libertines energy about it all is endearing. The same can be said of 'Sour Little Sweetie', although there's a confusing polish about the percussion that's a little distracting - the cymbals sound weird. "The place was never liveable anyway according to me" goes 'Lean on my World', a slow-building and slightly edgier track with yet another lovely chorus. Most seem to be going a bit crazy over closer 'Tacky Tattoo', though, and it's not difficult to see why: starting slow and sombre ("Sometimes I wanna sell my soul to the devil"), it goes on to brush off a girl with a bad reputation, and it's a nice, casual piece of storytelling that's got a strong melody to boot.

All-in-all? Another enjoyable album from a band that, by the rest of current British indie standards, should've faded away years ago.

Rating: 7/10
Highlights: Tacky Tattoo, AB (We Need Treatment), Anfield Row, Hole in the Bed
Avoid: The Clock

Artwork Watch: Shall I say it? Oasis.
Up next: Plan B