MFC CHICKEN – ALBUM REVIEW

MFC Chicken – Fast Food & Broken Hearts

(Dirty Water Records)

Release Date: Out Now

If you’re feeling glum and in need of a pick me up, then I can’t recommend this album heartily enough – 14 juicy nuggets of chicken surrounded by as much sauce as you can stomach. That’s right, the excellent MFC Chicken are back with their new album ‘Fast Food & Broken Hearts’ and their timing couldn’t have been better. Opening with the rim-shot rock’n’roll of ‘Always, Always, Always’, the MFC boys set out their sax fuelled stall with slick hair, bright lights and shiny shoes. ‘KFC Called the Cops On Me’ is a sub-two minute romp of bluesy rockabilly while ‘Who Gave What To Who?’ is the song that Grease had to cut from the soundtrack after the cast came out with a bad case of crabs. It’s a strong start by anyone’s standards.

On ‘Shell of a Man’ the band get a little funky with a Pink Panther saxophone line and frontman Spencer Evoy blowing hard into the horn as well as his smoothly delivered vocals. It’s the turn of the guitar to take centre stage on ‘I’m Lost’ as it hops and skips through the track with nervous energy before ‘I Couldn’t Say no’ takes things down a notch for the kind of song that demands eye contact from those dancing to it. The mid-point of this chicken basket is ‘Fresh Chicken, Straight from the Trash’ and, honestly, you can’t help but be impressed by the number of analogies these guys can work in around chicken.

‘Spy Wail’ is, as you might expect, a sexy little spy instrumental with honking horns and moody guitars before the band get on to ‘Spontaneous Combust’ which has a knee trembling, leg shaking rhythm to it that puts you in mind of Rocket From the Crypt or Liam Lynch in a fantastic way. ‘Breakfast Taters’ has a Happy Days vibe to it but it’s the directly introspective recent single ‘Fuck You, Me’ that steals the show with the kind of playful melody and exasperated lyrics that we can all relate to when we let ourselves down.

Down to the final wings now and ‘Free Range Man’ swaggers on to the scene with a real sense of confidence and then ‘Tipi Tapa’ goes all Hawaiian shirt and Ray Bans cool on our asses with searing guitars, a tight rhythm section and just layers and layers of cool. The album closes out on ‘Waste of Space’, a track which finds the band in triumphant form ready to bring the audience to their knees at the end of the night. I first fell in love with MFC Chicken because of their legendary live performances but their albums are now on a par with the raw energy and infectious, dance inducing tunes that never, ever outstay their welcome. There ain’t no fat on this chicken, no sir. m

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