Playlouder - Music is the Network

‘Life In The Bus Lane’ is Applicants’ debut LP, and if nothing else, it’s a guaranteed method for inflicting earache on yourself. It’s less to do with the abrasive punk rock that the DIY collage album sleeve suggests, and more to do with the all-out aural assault of quirky samples and video game noises that festoon every one of these wilfully-bizarre indietronic sing-songs.

Each new track is a cupboard door to be opened, only to have a tower of bric-a-brac tumble out and bury you alive. On the whole, the experience is over pretty quickly – nowhere more so than on the excellent ‘Party Hat’, the entire lyrics to which are “Would you like to wear my party hat? / Fuck off, fuck off, fuck off, fuck off, no”: a sentiment with which many will sympathise. 

Applicants’ excessive energy and sharp wit work incredibly well when condensed into a Naplam Death-sized outburst of sentiment like this, and it’s a wonder they don’t employ the technique more often.

Still, their lyrical tricks remain high priority: sometimes wry commentary, (from ‘Crappucino’: “someone call the police ’cause you stole my town centre”), and sometimes doggerel (from ‘Filthy’: “I might be filthy but I am a nice bloke / give me some money so I can buy some soap”). Some times it works better than others; ‘Gameshow’ is a mis-timed slab of social commentary and not clever or witty enough to impress to the same level as some of the others here; ‘Times New Roman’ is a frankly bizarre treatise against the favourite font of typographers, which is lyrically intriguing but - in amongst the many midi blips and guitar riffs - feels like it’s approaching filler territory, which there really oughtn’t to be room for on an album this short.

There’s much worse to come, though – namely, the excruciating chopped-up and rearranged, crackly cackle-fest of Rolf Harris’ ‘Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport’, (a ‘hidden’ track, and untitled), which makes heavy use of the first syllable of “cockatoo”.

That said, there are other songs on here that I really rather like: ‘Pocket Dictionary’ is a power-pop masterpiece that showcases the best of both their kitchen-sink noise-mongering and their ear for an infectious melody; and ‘History Has Been Kind to Spike Milligan’ proves they can stretch their songs to over four minutes without making them grate.

All-in-all it’s an album with little to no observation of rules or conventions: deliberately chaotic and yet flirting with a pop sheen of its own creation. When it works, it’s wonderful, when it doesn’t, it’s difficult, but it has a certain chaotic charm that’s bound to appeal to some.