A collection of leather jackets and undersized jeans: check. Haircuts (strategic lack thereof): check. Spiky guitar driven pop punk complete with soaring Adam Ant-type vocals and dual synths: check. Well, no wonder everybody's having a small seizure over them. But are they actually any good? Or are they just another bright spark in an ever-expanding pan of what is fast becoming bland? Boy Kill Boy's debut album Civilian is the quintessential sound of "right now" (AKA the early 80s) - hence its rampant popularity. If it had been released 18 months ago it would've been deemed 'alternative', freshly grasping the coat tails of the 80s synth punk resurgence. Today, it's unequivocally pop. I can admit to throwing myself about the place to 'Suzie', missing a beat to 'Back Again', and a Simon Le Bon impression to 'Killer' - but a whole album of subtly varied repetition takes the veneer off the proceedings. By the time 'Friday-Friday' comes on you're wrestling with the suspicion you've heard this album a million times before and that you've been taken on a ride of the piss-taking nature. Boy Kill Boy have created a commendable collection of shout-out-loud crowd pleasers, with reprieves coming in the form of pretty piano ballads 'Ivy Parker' and 'Shoot Me Down'; but if you're seeking something new you won't be finding it here. Enjoy it for what it is; fashionable fun with a definite shelf life. If they can bring the same polished take of what's contemporary to their next album, it will without doubt be just as popular.
