Arthur Walker is not so common a name as you may imagine. Wiki lists a 19th century English cricketer and an American neurosurgeon but this Devon based four piece band is still the first Google hit you'll get.
The homely moniker actually comes from an obscure 1999 single from UK band called Cable ("My name is Arthur Walker - I am a lost explorer")
They come from Plymouth and play what their website proudly declares is "Pop and Punk infused Rock",a description which cleverly combines three genres for the price of one.
This debut album has a distinctly schizophrenic quality swinging unpredictably , often mid song, between cute New Wave and raging Hardcore. It ends up sounding as if they are publicly growing away from dark screamo roots and moving towards pure pop.
Tell-tale skulls on the sleeve prove that the old school rock values die hard as does the fact that the album title comes from a line on the fired up track menacingly entitled 'I Am A Skull And I Am Evil'.
The eleven songs , plus one hidden track (Same Cell) are too wordy to qualify as rock anthems and lyrically too bizarre to rank as pop tunes. "Hello medicine" is no-one's idea of a catchy chorus and on My Headphone Attracts, there are confusing lines like "now I'm getting old, it's making me feel like I was not born" and "I'll get you up in a line, and I'll pick you out".
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The album's best moments undoubtedly come when they keep things simple and poppy, as on the single 'Angles An Lines, where they sound like a mix between XTC and Post-Punk bands like The Nightingales or Yeah Yeah Noh which , like Cable , were championed by John Peel.
The low points are when they come across as self consciously quirky or when the vocals revert to laddish chants as on Jennifer And Joe's Christmas where rage is directed towards a bitch/witch who is imagined with a ship's hull sticking out of her ass!
They have a tight and punchy sound that I'm sure makes them well worth catching live, but on record they are a band who have yet to find their true voice.
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