‘Even Socialists’ surf read the slogan on a day-glo T-shirt once presented to your correspondent by no less than Billy Bragg himself. The inference, of course, being just because you might lean towards the left in your political views, then you aren’t necessarily the kind of grey, joyless apparatchik that supposedly disappeared when the Iron Curtain was finally torn down. In fact, you might just be a well-balanced human being in search of a better society.
There again, in those days, we were still living with the Tories, unemployment was still on the rise and a few years before there had been rioting on the British streets...er, hang about, that all sounds strangely like the landscape in 2011, doesn’t it? So why can’t we now have a band full of incendiary urgency capable of putting a human face on Socialism and giving the Tories a bloody good kicking into the process?
Actually, we may just have ‘em already. While they hail from Reigate rather than Red Square, THEE FACTION peddle a neat line in crunching, amphetamine Rhythm’n’Blues. Ignoring a limited edition live affair (‘...At Ebbw Vale’), ‘Up the Workers!’ (‘Or: Capitalism is Good for Corporations; that’s Why you’ve been Told Socialism is Bad all Your Life’) is their debut album. Or, perhaps more accurately, their manifesto in eleven easy to swallow slices.
And, while W&H make a point of keeping well clear from political soapboxes as a rule, Thee Faction’s manifesto seems worth a scan in these days of failing economies and social unrest. While they are clearly serious about their Marxist leanings, tracks like the hilarious, doo-wop inspired ‘Marx, My Main Man’ (“now the world is full of sin/ but one book’s got the answers in”) also inject a necessary dollop of humour into the proceedings.
Primarily, raucous punky anthems are Thee Faction’s stock in trade on ‘Up the Workers!’ Indeed, so infectious are the rampaging likes of ‘Ready/’ (“are you ready for revolution?”) and the mad-eyed anti-consumerism rant ‘Customer’ that it’s hard not to get all pumped up and end up punching the air in triumph. The likes of ‘Angry’ and ‘Do Yr Bit’ (“argue with a Tory...don’t meditate/ put your heart and soul into your part”) mainline a wired, R’n’B energy akin to a monster amalgam of Dr. Feelgood and Chumbawamba and ‘Deft Left”s tough, angular guitar shapes are married to lyrics (“every day I’m wondering’ what happened to the anger? / this is not what I remember when we were fighting Mrs. Thatcher”) which are certainly cogent, but presumably penned before the recent rioting.
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There’s a lot more going on here than merely power anthems and rhetoric, however. Featuring a smoky vocal from (I assume) keyboard player Kassandra Krossing, ‘Only...’ is a jazzy, supper club ballad (“stealing cones while on a bender/ criticising banks and lenders without any action won’t set you free”) with one hell of a difference, while the closing ‘Capitalism is Good for Corporations; That’s Why You’ve Been Told Socialism is Bad All Your Life’ rocks the kind of title only the Manic Street Preachers could get away with as a rule, yet it turns into an extremely deft sing-along which will hook you in spite of yourself.
You’re not here to be converted to any given cause (save great music), so I’m not attempting to dub Thee Faction as the ‘answer’ to given socio-political ill will. I am, however, happy to endorse ‘Up the Workers!’ as a cool, thought-provoking album full of ideologically-challenging songs that work at head and heart level and mostly get you out on the floor in the process. A vote for the Reigate Popular Front might just give some much-needed power to the people, so let’s give ‘em a chance, eh comrades?
Thee Faction online
Soviet Beret Records online
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