22-20s

Oh hindsight. Such a wonderful thing. This is an album review I wrote in late-2004 about a British band called the 22-20s. Listening to their self-titled debut, I got a little bit over-excited and tipped them for greatness. Sure enough, they broke up shortly afterwards and it's taken until 2010 for them to patch things up, reform and get their music back on track. Perhaps I jinxed them six years ago...

Hang about, I think there’s been some kind of mistake. I’m supposed to be reviewing a debut album by a bunch of 21-year-old lads from the genteel town of Lincoln in England. What I’ve got here sounds like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club jamming with a grisly old Delta Bluesmith from Mississippi.

Well, whoever these guys really are, I gotta tell you they fuckin’ rock dude!

The dynamic duo of ‘Devil In Me’ and ‘Such A Fool’ start proceedings with screeching slide guitar and rat-a-tat drumming, whilst Martin Trimble sings with the kind of zeal you’d normally associate with a born-again missionary. Yessir he’s seen the light! It’s beautiful and it’s blue!

The bluesrockfest continues throughout most of the album but the 22-20s aren’t just one trick ponies. ‘The Things That Lovers Do’ is an anti-lovesong that’s just as warped as anything The Jesus & Mary Chain ever crafted. Then there’s the reflective ‘Friends’: “I’ve been sinking in the sand, I always had a helping hand, Try to find where trouble ends, I found out it’s in your friends.” Simple but oh so true. 

This is an assured debut from a band who are gonna rock our world for some time to come.

If 22-20s was an injury it would be a bruise: black and blue.  

By Andy McLean. Copyright held by author.

First published in The Brag, Sydney, 2004.

22-20s is available through EMI.