This Cockney five-piece have a lot going for them – not least some tall tales to tell. The pithy pen-pic of kinky goings on in Suburban Sex Dungeon and the macabre, Blur-ish domestic noir of Your Lovely Wife (telling the story of a battered spouse poisoning her abuser) immediately stand out on Dexters’ second album due to a neat way with a rhyming couplet.
When coupled with high-octane tunes like recent single Stay Strange, it’s a winning blend. You sense they just need a couple more such bangers to really stand out.
The upbeat Cast-style anthemics of You Deserve The World, for instance make a positive change from the standard work-is-drudgery, suburbia-is-hell sentiments found elsewhere, but the melody’s not quite memorable enough to help the words stick in the memory.
They’re evidently not lacking in wordsmith wit – all they need now is the musical wiles to capitalise on it more effectively.
