ALBUM REVIEW: Hung Like Hanratty – Welcome To The Future (Ratty Records)
Hung Like Hanratty aren’t for the easily offended – but you’ve probably guessed that just from their name.
They’re certainly an acquired taste with their pithy takes on life and its irritations, but have a big and growing following on the DIY punk circuit.
This is their sixth album in 10 years, and it’s packed with infectious tunes and their forthright views on everything from the mundane to the globe-threatening.
After a fairly pointless instrumental opener it’s down to business with The Great Divide, a barrelling song about how workers get nothing while the rich get richer.
Feral Beryl, up next, is an instant Hanratty classic: “I know a woman whose name is Beryl/59 and fucking feral.” It turns out to be about a local junkie and drug dealer, and we’ve all probably seen just such a character knocking about.
This Is Existence is a rumination on how we seem live to work, while Forgotten Zero, one of the standout tracks, is about how easily ex-servicemen who served their country are cast aside. “He risked his life for you, now you don’t fucking care!” Quite.
The environmental damage being done by the human race is the weighty topic of Man Destroys, while Back In The Day is a nostalgic look back at childhood, when everything seemed simpler for those of us of a certain age in the pre-computer and internet era.
I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead is about living life to the full, going to see bands, meeting your mates, while Cry Wolf sees the band take aim at hypochondriacs, and Wank Mags In Bushes is about the joys of finding dirty mags in hedgerows when you were a kid.
There’s an anthemic call to arms in One For All, about punks and skins joining together to fight the establishment, while Flat Pack Furniture is about the frustration of assembling said household goods.
“My friend is German, her name is Mary Fritz, everyone loves her, because of her massive … personality.” is the running joke throughout Mary Fritz, which made me laugh out loud more than once. Laden with more double entendres than a copy of Viz, it’s another example of HLH at their cheeky best.
The one-two of Parking Eye and Council Cowboys both come from the viewpoint of the hard-pressed motorist, the first about parking fines and the second about potholes, and the latter is sure to be a live hit with the chorus: “Council hang your heads in shame, the roads are shit and you’re to blame.”
Things come to a slightly unsettling end with Working In The Morgue, a short but twisted song about falling in love with dead bodies. I did warn this wasn’t for the easily offended… 8.5/10.
