Album review: The Paddingtons - No Mundane Options

Years ago The Paddingtons would have built a reputation as a good pub punk band and left it at that. Now the internet and the download have democratised music to the point of lowest common denominator, and anyone can be famous for five minutes…

No Mundane Options is practically an inverted manifesto, another example of the overwhelmingly self-deluding practice of naming albums as if they were tornadoes of rebellion and anarchy rather than the conservative and blinkered retreads that they almost always are. The entire album screams of mundanity and mediocrity; I defy anyone to pick The Paddingtons out from the thousands of other new punk bands that have sprung up in the noughties.

A lot of uncomplicated shouting, an “I’m So Bored” rewrite (“What’s The Point In Anything New”) and one minor piece of irony (“Punk RIP”) are the only saving graces on thirty-five leaden and turgid minutes of No Mundane Options. The Paddingtons are as musically one-trick as their name implies; while intimating that the band have started to explore new territory (a facetious and plodding ‘love’ song, barely audible ‘humming monks’, a distinct lyrical improvement from their début) musically this new album isn’t so much stagnant as stillborn.

The Paddingtons undoubtedly have a sense of irony, but what they haven’t mastered yet is a sense of tuneful musicianship; I enjoy the untutored shouty choruses, but that’s basically the entire vocal range that the band possesses.

“You And I” is meant to be a breakout love song but the pedestrian playing, punkish production and the vapid lyrics only show a desperate and futile struggle to break out of their own ghetto. My only glimmers of hope are the opening two tracks (new single “What’s The Point In Anything New” and opener “Punk RIP”) and that - with No Mundane Options clocking in at just over half an hour in length - I don’t have to listen to The Paddingtons for very long.

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