Album of the Week: Year Zero — The Spitfires
Our Album of the Week is the third and latest release from The Spitfires. The band’s sound might invite plenty of comparisons, but this album proves that they’re much more than just the combination of the music that influences them.
The first thing you’ll notice about The Spitfires’ music is how different it is from that of their fellow indie peers. Even though the band were established just six years ago, the influence of a mod-revival sound is evident in their music. Bonding over a mutual love of bands like The Jam, The Clash, and The Specials, The Spitfires named themselves after the target symbol on the side of Spitfire planes, a symbol familiar not just from the plane, but also from mod culture.
Since the beginning, this underground success story have impressed fans with their work ethic, playing over two hundred shows to promote their first album, Response, with the social commentary in their lyrics also drawing support. Although it would be easy to classify The Spitfires as a modern band for a bygone era, the chart success of their previous two albums suggests otherwise. Back again with their third album, Year Zero, the four-piece Watford-based band continue to reject this notion with ten new songs that are not just “references to the past”, but a “reflection of the times we live in”.
The opening song, ‘Remains The Same’, begins with simple, twinkling notes reminiscent of a lullaby, before quickly transitioning into an upbeat fun-house melody with a reggae instrumental interlude, the latter being a genre which influences many of the songs on the track-listing. For example, the darker ‘Something Worth Fighting For’ is distinctly reggae-inspired in its sound, with heavy trumpets on the chorus. The song begins much slower, with shaky synth sounds very similar to the beginning of Funkadelic’s ‘Maggot Brain’. These synths are then slightly drowned out later by the cacophony of trumpets that usher in a increase in tempo. The following track, ‘By My Side’, is a simpler piano ballad, with vocal harmonies unexplored in previous tracks, and although they may not fit perfectly together, this makes the track all the more emotive. Just as you think the song is about to wind down, the bass guitar is joined by a reggae piano melody before exploding once again into full swing.
The ironically titled second single from the album, ‘New Age’, is probably most similar in sound to that of their influences from the past, featuring fast-paced punk rock guitar riffs with vocalist Billy Sullivan wondering “where it all went wrong”. It isn’t the only song to feature an upbeat rhythm with darker lyrics, though. One of the highlights of the album, ‘Sick Of Hanging Around’, has a positive, buoyant melody and a big-band instrumental moment on the chorus that would thrive on a summer festival stage. However, this is juxtaposed by the jaded lyrics, with Sullivan dreaming of escaping the “shackles of [his] hometown”. Despite the contrast, the upbeat rhythm instills a sense of hope, as though those shackles may well be gone someday. ‘Over And Over Again’ follows a similar theme, with an upbeat, swinging melody that leads on to a ‘Chelsea Dagger’-esque high at the end, all despite Sullivan singing “I fill myself with hate/I need to compensate/over and over again”.
‘Move On’ is an edgy reggae rock track, that shows The Clash influences coming through more than ever, with excellent percussion from Matt Johnson. ‘Year Zero’, the title track, goes in a very different direction, and is still a “clash”, but in a different sense. This instrumental has a distinct reggae rhythm, but features a bizarre mixture of sounds, with the repetitive synth chords sounding somewhat like an amateur spy film theme played on an effects keyboard. Luckily, the final song, ‘Dreamland’, brings everything together beautifully, combining all the best elements of the album. The reggae influence, brass, and swinging bass-line are all present, as well as the band’s trademark thought-provoking lyrics. Remember: “The revolution is awaiting a Facebook event”.
It would be easy to dismiss The Spitfires as an imitation, but this would be reductionist. Although there are plenty of musical similarities between them and the mod or New Wave bands of the past — even Sullivan’s voice sounds as though it belongs in a different era — this is not necessarily a bad thing. Just as artists like Greta Van Fleet are being compared to classic bands like Led Zeppelin, other bands that are now classic themselves were once compared to the greats that came before their time.
Even with similarities to be spotted and comparisons drawn, there is much more to The Spitfires than their influences. “For me, the mod thing is a bit backward,” Sullivan says, “[the movement] is flooded with an older generation trying to relive their youth”. Instead of recreating the magic of a subculture that has faded, The Spitfires are taking inspiration from its attitude, and using this to make music that is a reflection of the times we live in today.
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