Yours Truly, Angry Mob

Product Information

The final single "Love's Not a Competition (But I'm Winning)" was released as a collector's edition 7" single on 12 November 2007, with The Little Ones' cover of "Everything Is Average Nowadays" as a B-side.

It was far from great album, but the simmering violence of "I Predict a Riot" and infectiousness of "Na Na Na Na Naa", "Everyday I Love You Less and Less", and "Oh My God" got the Chiefs bracketed with British ancestors such as Small Faces, Madness, and Blur. If "Mob" ended with that bit of resignation, it would be fine, but the coda brings the groans, explaining the titular mass not as rowdy bar patrons or concert attendees, but society itself: "We are the angry mob, we read the papers everyday/ We like who we like, we hate who we hate, but we're oh so easily swayed. If he cared a whit about subtlety or nuance, Wilson could wrench deeper meaning from his pithy observations.

stars out of 5 -- "[T]heir second album manages to be full of surprises, while never straying too far from what you'd expect.

stars out of 5 -- "[The album] marches through its baker's dozen of punk-tinged pop songs with a prickly sense of purpose.The band revealed to NME in October 2006 that they had recorded 22 songs and hoped to whittle that number down to 13 or 14 for the final album. Wilson attempts to force a barroom competitor into independent thought: "You're winding yourself up until you're turning blue, repeating everything that you've read," before giving up: "It's only 'cause you came here with your brothers, too; if you came here on your own you'd be dead.

In Europe, Asia and America, "Learnt My Lesson Well" and "Boxing Champ" were added together to make one track, at a running time of 5:25. The rhythms were just as foregrounded, but drawn more from pub-rock and Britpop than Josef K and Joy Division, with banged-out piano runs and ramped-up choruses replacing chippy guitars and watertight drumming. They had the energy and enthusiasm of a group of soldiers on a weekend furlough, with Ricky Wilson leading a series of sing-alongs and sappy-but-heartfelt ballads. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights.The Buzzcocks-referencing "Everything Is Average Nowadays" mines similar territory ("everyone is sitting on the fence"), yet the band didn't get the message that they weren't supposed to prove their claim by illustrating how blandness sounds. The self-hatred is capped on "My Kind of Guy", where Wilson abandons the ladies and finds a partner in despair, one who "sounds as horrible" as he does. Pitchfork may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. But On Mob, he's clearly trying for something more, yet seemingly unaware that he's caught in a rut. Of course, he doesn't, which was fine when the band was content to wallop the listener over the head.