When Rats From a Sinking Ship announced they were no more in March 2021, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one that read their post with a sense of disappointment. With five albums and 2 EPs under their belts, they have an impressive back catalogue, so when the band started posting teasers such as images with the legend “Is This What You’ve Been Waiting For?” the appetite was whetted for whatever was going to come…
The resultant release is a career spanning retrospective of tracks from across their fine array of albums from Rise as One in 2015 through to Glamorous Terrorists in 2020.
The appeal of the band to the likes of lefty woke snowflakes like myself is both as a result of the music, a hybrid of raps and riffs, with a hefty dose of carefully selected samples, and the subject matter of the songs – tackling everything from racism (Dedicated Follower of Fascism amongst others) to homophobia (Queer), corrupt politicians to despicable “celebrities” (Kate “Fucking” Hopkins – whatever happened to that lovely woman, was she “cancelled” or did she just become irrelevant because of her hideous views?) and animal rights (If you Must Shoot Animals Use a Camera, If You Hunt Then You’re a Cunt) to the state of the music industry (Stop Making Stupid People Famous), while also playing to the memories of the kids of the 70’s and 80’s with the likes of the list song that is “Lewis Collins as Bodie”, Threads (still gives me nightmares), Frankie Says, Candy cigarettes, Evil Kneivel, Harriet Makepeace….and a particular memory of Bruce Dickinson’s yell of “scream for me Long Beach” on the Live after Death album.
This 22-track retrospective opens with the crashing clamour of Love is the Answer from the 2019 EP with Love and Violence and takes the listener through the back catalogue of the band in their various guises (always including the ever-present frontman Alex Lusty and guitar virtuoso Jamie Price) including the more beats and synth heavy collaboration with Markus Kienzl, the superb We are Heathen from which they have included Diatribe, Bad Blood, Lock Horns and the wonderful Looney Left featuring the vocal talents of Benjamin Zephaniah defining, and taking pride in, everything the right wing will have you believe is wrong or verging on that evil communism thing…
The album closes with a song from their debut album, the frantic pulsating rap punk of Rise as One, their no holds barred swipe at right wing politics, the war on terror and misplaced unacceptable attitudes framed as patriotism.
In what must surely be a form of closure and putting the lid on the coffin of the band, there are two new songs on the album suitably titled Epilogue and Epitaph, these new songs show no let-up in the rage and venom the band are famous for, picking their targets carefully and ensuring they don’t miss. Epitaph once again despairing at the state of the music industry. And you, yes you, the music fan that expects all their music for free…
A great farewell from a superb band, whose live performances were always incendiary. I’m sure this won’t be the last we hear from Lusty and Jamie, you can’t keep these two down. Rats never sink.
The last I heard the number of CDs left was in single figures… you might just be lucky, but when they’re gone, they’re gone. You can still hear the songs on that evil corporate artist fucking streaming platform…play on repeat and they may see royalties of about £0.000000001 in a few years.
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