ALBUM REVIEW: Riot City Radio – Time Will Tell (Sunny Bastards)
Riot City Radio are a three-piece street-punk band from Plymouth, featuring past and present members of Arch Rivals, Hostile Minds and Hard Wax.
Formed by long-term friends and collaborators Tom Murphy (vocals/guitar), Tom Boutwood (vocals/drums) and Matt Colton (vocals/bass), they draw on a range of influences, from punk to Oi! and hardcore to ska.
When I saw this debut album was on German label Sunny Bastards – home to bands with the pedigree of Gimp Fist, Boilermaker, City Saints and Knock Off – I should have known it would be decent.
What I wasn’t prepared for was how a band I’d never seen or even heard of could release an album quite this good.
The opening track, On The Streets, is a real call to arms which sets the bar for what follows, grabbing you by the throat and almost taking your breath away with its full-on attack.
It’s just the first of 11 swaggering slices of melodic street-punk packing more punch than Tyson Fury when he’s woken up in a bad mood.
Packed with urgent guitar, bobbling bass and pounding drums, Time Will Tell is the first album I’ve heard in a long time which made me go ‘wow’.
One absolutely blistering tune follows another, and every time you think ‘they can’t possibly top that’, they go and do just that.
Punk Rock Family and Working Class Anthem sees them sing with pride about their roots and the importance of community, while Overcome addresses the rotten state of the UK today.
Burning Bright is an upbeat tune which sounds like Booze And Glory, whose frontman Mark Marlowski joins the boys on guest vocals for World At Our Feet.
Reap What You Sow is about bad behaviour coming back to bite you on the arse, while Never Forgive, Never Forget addresses the Prince Andrew/Jeffrey Epstein scandal, insisting “we know just what you did and now it’s time to pay”.
Make no mistake, Riot City Radio know they’re good and aren’t afraid to shout about it as they fire through their anthemic street-punk songs of solidarity.
This isn’t just the best debut album I’ve heard this year, it’s one of THE best albums of 2022. Ignore this at your peril. 9/10.
- Time Will Tell is available on CD and various vinyl variations from Sunny Bastards HERE or direct from Riot City Radio via their Facebook page HERE.
The CD version includes the band’s previous release, 2020’s four-track Anchor In The Storm EP, as bonus tracks.
