Send "Fight Like Apes " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Contactmusic |
 Fight Like Apes first album, FLApes and The Mystery Of The Golden Medallion, was a great debut album brimming with energy, youthful exuberance, cocky bravado and genuinely funny, often cynical, reflections on life. You couldn't play it to your Granny, or your kids, and Jamie's own parents thought it was "Disgusting". MayKay sounded as petulant as Lydon and the songs sense of humour and power showed how you could inject a little fun back into a pedestrian rock panorama that was used to contemplating its own naval whilst listening to Coldplay, Radiohead or Arcade Fire.(I'm not averse to a little inward contemplation, but this album releases the over excited sugar loaded flailing child in you like no other). Like The Undertones, The Toy Dolls or The Sultans Of Ping before them FLApes showed you could use humour and wryly perceived observations to just as great effect as melancholic gravity. That was then.The Body Of Christ And The Legs Of Tina Turner is now. It's not a bad album, but, I'm saddened to say, it's nowhere near as good as its predecessor. It does rather feel in the most part that this collection of songs were the ones that never made it in the final edit of the original album. There are exceptions, but too few. The opening two tracks are trying too hard to emulate the brilliant Something Global and Jake Summers, as if sequencing the songs in a similar order could somehow disguise their weaknesses. They are not in the same league. The opener 'Come On, Let's Talk About Our Feelings' is a social commentary on life lived out as though it were episodes of The Jeremy Kyle show. The synth strong back drop still sits spliced between the guitar and drum heavy beats to great effect but, when you've had Champagne you'd rather not settle for Cava. The latest single, 'Kenny Jelly', sees more effective use of hooky keyboard loops, bouncy bass lines and intermittently ludicrously fast velocity to effect a very catchy tune.(The videos quite funny too) Although repeated plays have softened my initial disappointment it still remains that from from here on in the album veers dangerously close to flat lining. Mary-Kate and Jamie's "well read friends" can't save the spiteful and revenge fueled diatribe of 'Pull Off Your Arms And Lets Play In Your Blood', even if they are inspired to drop two 'c' bombs in as many sentences because of them. The time has long since past for an instruction to 'wash your mouths out with soap'. Next up is the album's first single 'Hoo Ha Henry'; a riotous mix of charged and frenzied sing-a-longs that act as MayKay's score as she searches for a better partner............full text |
| State |
| When Fight Like Apes’ debut album, 2008’s Fight Like Apes and the Mystery of the Golden Medallion, was met with grumblings of discontent, it was interpreted by some either as an example of good old-fashioned Irish begrudgery or as a kneejerk, indier-than-thou reaction to their increasing mainstream popularity. After all, what was not to love about a band who, famed for their raucous live shows, brought a heavy dose of fun, energy and irreverence to the table? Yet there was more to it than mere hipster crankiness. Fight Like Apes’ early EPs were indeed superb, with tunes like ‘Jake Summers’, ‘Lend Me Your Face’ and ‘Do You Karate?’ striking a perfect balance between abrasive punk attitude and irresistible pop hooks. Yet the re-recorded versions included on the album indicated that the band were over-egging the pudding a bit: in their rejigged form they sounded overproduced and overdone, more try-hard than exuberant. For follow-up album The Body of Christ and The Legs of Tina Turner, the quartet have effectively stripped things back, with a more rough-and-ready sound and with Gang of Four’s Andy Gill in the producer’s chair. Opening track ‘Come On, Let’s Talk About Our Feelings’ sets the tone nicely: with brattish vocals, sardonic lyrics and trademark spiky synths, it builds from a subdued intro to a frenetic climax, lead singer MayKay repeating the refrain “please accept our sincerest apologies” until it’s nothing less than an earworm. Welcome back. That’s followed by ‘Jenny Kelly’, which sounds just like the Fight Like Apes we first fell in love with, an infectious three-minute punk-pop dash with some nifty guitar....full text |
| Goldenplec |
| To say writing this review was possibly as hard as writing that difficult second album for the band, I guess I can relate to the process that would have gone into trying to follow-up such a successful debut album and continue the Fight Like Apes journey which one feels can only end in global stardom such is a magnitude of the members in the band. For me its hard to even press play on a second album, I’m expecting it to be terrible, to hate it, to think that it’s changed them forever in my mind so much that I now won’t see them live again. This is a band whom in 2009 i saw live 10 times, don’t ask me why, I seem drawn to them, I participated in their recording of Something Global video in Whelan’s, I saw them at the DIT Rag ball and the Trinity Ball as well as other dates around Ireland. To say I had a problem was an understatement, but I genuinely loved the first album and it’s energy and it’s get up and dance vibe from every groove on the CD. This second album does drop the pace a little bit, It’s not so much trash the dance floor as hit it and enjoy it while your there. It kicks off with probably two of my favourite songs on the album, Come on Lets Talk about our Feelings and Jenny Kelly. Talk about our feelings is a slow start that picks up the pace as it progresses, with the kind backing vocals that I know played live will be amazing as the crowd shouts them back at the band as Mary-Kate orchestrates proceedings, reminding me of ‘I’m Beginning To Think You Prefer Beverly Hills 90210 To Me‘ Jenny Kelly is upbeat from the start and potentially my favourite track on the album at the moment, It’s frenetic, has a catchy chorus you’ll find yourself repeating to yourself as you go about your day. Pull off your Arms and Lets play in your blood takes the pace down a bit, it’s a darker song with lyrics like ‘I can’t keep writing songs about cutting you up’, They’ll have a bit of a job cleaning this up if it’s ever for radio play, but this kind of song is exactly why Fight Like Apes fan love them, they are raw and open and they let this flow through their lyrics, the song has a fast paced finish that will undoubtedly have the pit tearing each other apart....full text |
Fight Like Apes lyrics
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