Here at Punktastic, it’d be hard to say that we’re a stranger to Red Bull Records artist Itch. Controversy surrounding his former band The King Blues spewed up through the forums a few times “back in the day” – go search for it if you’re that bothered – and there’s always that cameo in the ‘Arse Full Of Chips’ song about our former Editor Paul Savage worth bringing up for a laugh.
The point being that we’ve been there with Itch since The King Blues were playing to fuck all people in a toilet (as have most mid twenties punks in the UK), and his transformation from that to a Reading/Leeds main stage playing front man and now artist in his own right has been an interesting rollercoaster that very few with DIY roots will ever experience.
As you’d probably expect from an artist frequently associated with genre smashing, Itch doesn’t settle on one style with ‘The Deep End’, opting to let the influences do their thing.
The more familiar and effective reggae and straight up pop influenced tracks like ‘Laugh’ and ‘Another Man’ are present and correct, though the latter unfortunately brings back memories of the female/male play off in [spunge]’s ‘Second Rate’ so it’s probably best not to talk too much about that. ‘Laugh’ has the potential to be the big hit from the album and though we’re loath to keep bringing it up – this could have been THE big King Blues songs if they were still together.
Anyway, the attempts to keep the alt/punk crowd interested are here as well – most obviously on ‘Homeless Romantic’ and opener ‘Life Is Poetry’. The former, previously released track features Adam Lazarra from Taking Back Sunday and is notable for two reasons – Lazarra’s borderline ironic bearded appearances in the video and its strong compatibility with the rock night crowd. The latter sets up the record with a Red Hot Chili Peppers -esque guitar hook through the verses, and whether that sentence puts you off or not might be telling as to whether ‘The Deep End’ will be for you – especially as it’s followed by a bit of an odd approach to inspirational chorus in the same track.
The best work on the album is actually when Itch is given a bit of a space to rap (the verses of ‘Children Of The Revolution’ and ‘Best Shot’ for example), but these moments are often killed abruptly with a shoehorned made-for-radio chorus. You can’t blame Itch for this at all though. It’s all designed to be bounced along to and tracks like ‘Sun Goes Down’ takes the same approach and manages to nail it with some inspired orchestral hits and insanely smooth chorus.
Closing the album with ‘Ricochet’ (and the two before it) might turn out to be a bit of a masterstroke as well. Itch’s vocal sounds solid over dubstep in the verses here and the choruses will sound huge through club and festival sound systems.
Overall, ‘The Deep End’ has some really strong moments (some of it being career best from Itch), but it suffers heavily as an album for trying to appeal too widely. That said, we live in an age where people devour music in bites, so you’d have to assume people will just pick their favourites and take it as they like.
TOM AYLOTT