Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
We are teetering on the edge of an abyss, it may look the same as the other ones we have collectively come across, the sign posts look awfully familiar, the paint on the boards pointing away from the cliff, freshly touched up and given a bit more dynamic gloss, and the lemmings hurling themselves off the cliff is a mighty big clue that we have been this way before. However, the scenario is different now, so much more to lose, a bigger threat consumes us and having P.H.D. (Prison, Hospital, Debt) is arguably the only defence we have.
Written by the legendary drummer Rat Scabies, who on this record also plays guitar, keyboards and cigar box guitar, and joined by Jesse Budd on vocals and Nick Oblivion on bass guitar, the allusion to the past is inescapable, and yet has the nuance and brilliance riveted through out of the heady days with The Damned. It is an unmistakeable urge to revel in the fine aptitude and imagination of one of the country’s most passionate performers that makes this new record, P.H.D. (Prison, Hospital, Debt) a collector’s item in itself, one for the box to have and take immense pleasure from.
The wild young drummer of days past still resides with all the rightful anger and fury in his heart, these days it is a skill and a mercy to be able to still have both intact, and he is able to justify this rage and resentment to the way we have voluntarily shuffled our way to the abyss once again, but taking some stock and reason in that it is always hoped the ground swell of emotion will lead to some rather tremendous anti establishment art.
With the tracks My Wrists Hurt, Rat’s Opus, Shivers, Un Noveau Balai (A New Broom), the exceptional and great nod to the Progressive in Floydian Slip and Glad You Could Make It all chomping at the sizeable bit in which the album regales in glory, P.H.D. (Prison, Hospital, Debt) is the one time you want to inhabit these three institutions, that whilst there, you can sidle up to the King himself and join in the enraged exasperation felt at the world and the liberty pursued in righting the wrongs caused.
Rat Scabies releases P.H.D. (Prison, Hospital, Debt) on the 18th May.
Ian D. Hall