Ridiculously good fun arrives in the shape of the new single from The Outlaw Orchestra, "Rotten Apples". It is rawkus, bawdy and self deprecating, yet there is still a lot of clever stuff going on in there. It may sound like what would have happened if Motorhead had turned into a country band and needed a theme song and it may be delivered with it's tongue firmly in its cheek yet underneath it all there is still some pretty fine rootsy rocking playing going on.
Starting with a thunderous drum opening from Mr Thundersmith, we are soon riffing in a fast bluesy style as the introductory lyrics come in.
"You call us rotten apples
‘Cause we landed with a thump
You chucked us on the compost heap,
We fermented, we got drunk"
It is a set of lyrics that will explore the great "Apple" publicists in history, Eve and Newton sometimes with word play not high on subtlety - one wonders how they kept a straight face delivering the final line of the second verse.
"Eve gave us the eye
We ain’t no providers
Not sweet enough for apple pie
We ended up in cider"
It's a great singalong chorus
"We’re rotten apples, rotten to the core
Black sheep of the family too rotten to ignore
We’re rotten apples, rotten to the core
You know you really want us, keep coming back for more"
It continues in a similar vein at a frantic pace
You pulled us to the ground
Just like Newton said
“watch out where you’re going boys, you bumped me on the head”
Should have never left the orchard, should have stayed up in the tree
Never fallen from the branches but hey, that’s just gravity!"
The song is four minutes long all and to all intents and purposes is nearly wrapped up in two and half minutes, it leaves room for mayhem to break out with rocking guitar riffs, and more drum thumping. With room for one final assault and ending with a chomp on a Braeburn this is much fun as anyone will have this harvest time on the orchard!
"Rotten Apples" and the album from whence it comes La Familia is out on Oct 18th