Despite the many line up changes, Cheap Time has always been a quintessential sum of its parts, an equal part being the low-fi bombast that they usually employ to scuzz-up their otherwise lightweight brand of simplified 1970’s glam punk. While not as crisply-fried as their debut LP, the current offering from Jeffery Novak & Co. still delivers the expected amount of adolescent snottery with a strong sense of sing-songy cohesion, mostly dissected into two minute blasts of sound.
When Fantastic Explanations (And Similar Situations) decidedly detours from standard form it does so in somewhat predictable ways. “Miss Apparent” delves into early Led-Zepland (okay maybe it’s more reminiscent of a few Creation songs but I’m going with my first impression); “Down The Tube” would have good company on (X) Aspirations.
What’s obviously missing is the wiry intensity and post-production knob dicking that tweaked their self-titled album to such a manic degree. Gone are the Hubble Bubblesque vocal and guitar effects; even some of the effortless catchiness from earlier recordings has diminished. Regardless, this is 100% pure, uncut Cheap Time and a cheap time’s a good time in this instance. A solid release for genre fans with ADHD.
Pick up the Cheap Time Fantastic Explanations (And Similar Situations) LP or CD from In The Red, right HERE, HERE or HERE or HERE.
Check out a video of Cheap Time performing "People Talk" in Groningen, courtesy of Herb79,
