Review: Crowns - Full Swing

 I may have given this EP the wrong title. It might just be a self-titled effort but this is what the title is on Spotify. This is unimportant, but some fans of the group may be annoyed if I've made a mistake. "Mistakes" is my middle name.

 Anyway, Cornish punk rockers Crowns are finding themselves in the stage of rising to the public eyes for their raucous and joyous take on traditional punk music making themselves the Cornish equivalent of The Pogues mixing traditional Cornish music with the classic punk style of The Clash. For some, this may sound disgraceful, like my Dad who finds the Pogues to be one of the worst bands ever and also hate Cornwall due to an unhappy holiday in Bodmin. However, there's been a lot of views opposing to those of my Dad and Crowns have found themselves being played on Radio 1 by Zane Lowe and supporting fellow traditional punk superstars The King Blues, it can't be denied that things are going up for the quartet from the land of Pasties... or some better Cornish joke. Corny joke? This blog is called "Ramblings" for a reason... anyway here's a review of their EP Full Swing.

 The sense of tribute to music with a heritage found across these six songs is very high and reveals an attention paid to traditional folk songs from history and a learning from them in how to write songs and create a rousing tune to get everyone in the bar singing along and so with rough production and rousing tunes played out on guitars and mandolin and making big hooky choruses and swinging rhythms throughout. 

 In many ways there's something of a contrasting atmosphere throughout the EP. With tracks like Kissing Gate and Bodmin Town having lyrics of warm adorable romance and intimate folk performances, there's some level of a touching and sweet atmosphere to their performance but then there's also tracks like Full Swing and Whose Pint's Whose which in their swaggering punk performance are much better party pieces... at least for parties in Cornish Pubs where sobriety is non-existent.

 And that's basically what you're getting from Crowns here. It's hardly dynamic and production wise, a further similarity is shared between the and The Pogues in that the songs sound as though they were actually recorded in the back of a bar, but in many ways these qualities sum up Crowns' goal in musical. To gain heartfelt success and lots of love from playing simple folk songs with a punk rock influence to unite drinkers and romantics everywhere. Will it happen? We'll just have to wait and see.

 Crowns' Full Swing is out now via Ship Wreckords. The band are on tour of the UK from March-April with Sharks.