Plastic Jeezus are two gentlemen who have a knack of creating satirical songs with clever lyrical content and a host of comedy consequences. The duo has been treading the boards of local music venues and comedy clubs for quite a while now and last year their talent was deservedly recognised with an award for “Best Newcomers” in the Musical Comedy Awards.
In 2017 they released their debut album “Choose Your Own Misadventure”, followed by the “Quite Heavy Things” E.P., then in 2020 they jumped on the Christmas bandwagon with a festive EP entitled “Utter Baubles”. Each release showed a unique set of ideas that take you on a journey of light relief from all your daily burdens. The good news is that Simon and Aaron have been working hard preparing the release of the next album and it’s due out on the 7th February. It’s a 10 track affair and is called “Leave Them Wanting Less” if you have been lucky enough to see them live recently you may just recognize a few tracks. The front cover of the album shows the duo in brown turtle neck sweaters like something from a 70’s album you might find in a charity shop.
The ten tracks are packed with some of Fernand and Roberts’ best work to date with them both pushing their musical and lyrical boundaries, to bring in new fresh elements to their new creations. It all kicks off with “E is For Effort”, where the lyrical conundrums are aplenty and the English language is fully exploited with all its wonderful quirks. You even get to hear a spooky Theremin part way through, along with the infectious Ukulele and keyboard sounds. “The Size Of Whales” kicks off like a children’s TV theme tune (Think “Rhubarb & Custard” if your old enough to remember it) but within the first minute Simon drops an F-bomb and you know then that’s certainly not the target demographic, the best part of the song is definitely Aaron’s bubbling whale noises.
“Hold Music” though, is quite tongue in cheek. It is about a problem we all have when trying to get through to a call centre. It’s a clever and funny dig at the way companies keep us waiting, especially when they say “Your Call is important To Us” and you think “Why don’t you answer the F**ing Phone then”? I’m not quite sure what they were thinking when they wrote the song “Horse’s Arse”, it’s a completely insanely random piece of work. However you cannot help but sing-along with Aaron, also you can’t help but feel sorry for the poor horse. Apparently, no horses were hurt when this song was created….thankfully.
You initially start by thinking with the first listen of “My Angle” that the band have written a serious song; with its lovely delicate intro, then Simon tramps all over this with some seriously smartly collected lyrics. The song features Nick Harvey on piano who is a composer who primarily writes music for television, including for ‘Sky Arts landscape/Portrait Artist of the Year’, ‘Hunted’ and Louis Theroux’s ‘L.A. Stories’. One of the most interesting of tracks is “The Fortune Teller”; a song where Plastic Jeezus really push the envelope and create a wonderfully unique song that features some perfectly executed trumpet from the multi-talented George Bartle, giving the song a chilled Jazz Club kind of feel…..Nice!!
“Astro-Illogical” features Aaron trying to sound like a rapper; in the funniest uncool way, a bit like Dad dancing but rapping. The Theremin returns and Simon describes how ridiculous those horoscopes we read in the newspapers really are with some clever lyrical commentary. “Beast Extravaganza” takes us back to the old traveling shows that showed off the absurd and sometimes bizarre things that spiked people’s curiosity. “Middle-Class Punk” is a wonderful observation of how people change as they get older, using content inspired by Sex Pistols. The lyrical ramblings say “Cause I wanted to be a punk; I’m far too middle-classed and my guitar has shrunk”, it was apparently penned by Simon about himself. You can see him regularly in Tesco’s buying his avocados and quinoa. The final track is pure genius and it just blows my mind how they put the lyrics together, it starts “Lady Gaga sitting on a train, dressed in a ballerina outfit again, eating her lunch” then trundles off at a fair old pace with a host of tongue-twisters that are simply astonishing. Once the track ends it heads off afterwards into a 1990’s rave section sounding like The Prodigy on helium.
The album “Leave Them Wanting Less” has been like a child to Simon and Aaron – they love it unconditionally. It’s taken around nine months to bring it into the world; and its conception involved two people moaning, sweating and to be honest lots of emotion with a few tears at times too. You cannot fault these two talented chaps, they have fantastic chemistry and both have their own individual skills that when put together have an instant chemical reaction that seems to just get better and better. With Simon’s cheeky wit and Aaron’s unassuming dryness, they deserve any success they achieve and with this collection of songs, they certainly have taken themselves to the next level.
Track Listing
E For Effort
The Size Of Whales
Hold Music
Horse’s Arse
My Angle (Featuring Nick Harvey on Piano)
The Fortune Teller (Featuring George Bartle on Trumpet)
Astro-Illogical
Beast Extravaganza
Middle Class Punk
Jamie’s Tongue Twizzler
Members
Simon (Ukulele)
Aaron Roberts (Bass)
The album is available to pre-order (download or CD) from here.
Links
http://www.plasticjeezus.co.uk
http://facebook.com/plasticjeezus
https://plasticjeezus.bandcamp.com
Words by David Chinery (Chinners).
