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< The Paddingtons
First Comes First
words by Graeme Dolphin

The Paddingtons have already been held in comparison to The Libertines, The Clash and The Sex Pistols – all this before the release of their debut album ‘First Comes First’. And a fine debut album it is from the young punks who hail from the unfashionable city of Hull – a place famous for … er, give me a minute on that one.

‘Some Old Girl’ gets the album off to a flyer with its simple Strokes like baseline, while the intro to ‘50 to a £’ owes a lot to the Libertines’ ‘Don’t Look Back Into The Sun’ (but Carl and co. can’t complain as the latter is widely said to have borrowed from the Only Ones’ ‘Another Girl Another Planet’). Another Libertines influenced aspect is the opening drumbeat on ‘Stop Breathing’ – more than vaguely familiar to that of ‘Last Post On The Bugle’.

Top 40 hit ‘Panic Attack’ is the fitting mid-point of an album filled with heavy guitar riffs and pounding drumbeats. Vocals are suspect at times but lead singer Tom Atkin makes the best of his typically punk–rock voice on tracks like ‘Tommy’s Disease’. Atkin in fact, appears to have cloned the voice of contentious Chav, Pete Doherty, on ‘Loser’.

The opening verse of ‘Alright in the Morning’ has a touch of reggae about it. Still this is nothing new (The Clash on ‘Police and Thieves’ and The Libertines on ‘Cyclops’) yet it is effective. The positively anthemic ‘Sorry’ is worthy of bringing the curtain down on a top class debut album that brings much promise for the future. Should The Paddingtons act on such promise, they could become what the city of Hull is famous for.

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