 | | Salford Jets - Manchester Boys |
Surprisingly, he’s still fronting them, moonlighting from his jock slot to work through their better moments and a clutch of new songs. Manchester Boys is the result of that new-found energy, collecting together the oldies and the newies onto the band’s debut album, a long player that comes 25 years after their last single! It’s an album that’s cut between the tracks they recorded back in the late 70s and early 80s, and the ones Sweeney’s written for this release. Thanks to the current crop of new wave post-punksters, the old Jets’ music sounds astonishingly fresh. Album opener Lookin’ At The Squares could comfortably sit in a Maximo Park set, Kaiser Chiefs would love to have written the belting Gina (I’ve Got A Cortina), and The Futureheads would be happy with the spiky Who You Lookin’ At?, though the less said about the cod-Clash reggae of City Youth, the better. That said, that’s what the Jets were about, slipping between genres, constantly trying new things and never sticking to a formula for long. The new songs follow the same path, but don’t hit quite so hard. While the bristling I Don’t Believe You and seven minute jam session ramble Shadows Of The Night – featuring a turn by the ever entertaining Clint Boon - can hold their heads high next to its older siblings, the frankly odd twangs of (Just A) Country Boy and (Searching For The) Promised Land should probably have been left for a night around a Crumpsall campfire. A quarter of a century is a long time to wait for a debut album, but the mixed bag that is Manchester Boys is, for the most part, worth it. If nothing else, it reminds us all of one of both cities’ most-loved bands and lets the Salford Jets take their place in the Mancunian music pantheon.
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