Plastic Toys are not your standard NME day-glo electro-rock idiots. Their début album For Tonight Only begins with a cheesy seaside show-bar piano sketch before “Devil” blasts into action with the opening line,
“Last night I f*cked your girlfriend /
I tore your whole world down!”
You couldn’t make a more appropriate introduction to For Tonight Only. This is not an album full of bleeping keyboards and ironic references to eighties culture; it’s a riotous thirteen song gate-crasher of sex, synths, drugs and rock’n'roll that swaggers around with drunken abandon before spiking electro-rock’s drink and writing swear-words on its unconscious face with bright red lipstick.
Or, to put it more briefly, Plastic Toys have a decadent sleaziness that makes the other electro-rock poseurs look like naïve teenagers in mummy’s make-up and hairspray. For Tonight Only is full of punky shouting and wrenched rock-star singing from frontman Jon Plastic, sounding like Marilyn Manson might have if he’d left the overblown albatross of his stage persona behind him long ago. Convincingly wrecked and full of veiled threat and innuendo, Jon’s voice will break hearts and upset parents with equal ease.
The percussion is a careful blend of skuzzy disco beats and live rock drumming, with mosh-worthy bits and danceable choruses occurring with equal frequency. And there are some great riffs here, too – beefy and rocky, but with melody to spare beneath the smudges of dirt, lubricant and wine stains.
Synth player Si Jackson seems to have realised why keyboards usually sound crap, and has taken the effort to go beyond the obvious presets and program some sounds that kick a bit of arse. Combined with some synchronised riffs from Jon’s guitar and the bass of Kitty Brook, Plastic Toys have got some memorable and powerful hooks to back up Jon’s stage persona.
There’s a balance point between rock and pop songwriting, and Plastic Toys are as close to nailing it as anything I’ve heard recently. They’ve got rhythms you’d not be ashamed to be seen dancing to by your metal-head mates, and choruses that stick in your head so fast you’ll be singing along before the song is over.
But what Plastic Toys have that really sets them apart from the other electro-rock acts is that authentic punk-rock vibe of velocity and pace; the feeling that they’re pushing as hard as they can at the edges of every song, running full-tilt regardless of the risk of falling flat on their faces.
It’s the sound of commitment, and if Plastic Toys could bottle it, they’d be rich indeed. But for now, the only way you can get your fix is on a copy of For Tonight Only. Go fetch.
Related articles:
Posted in Music reviews |
Tags: alternative, electro-rock, rock
