The vocal style of the album is fairly clearly-spoken lyrics, with a good deal of two-bloke singing during the choruses (chorii?). There is a great deal of expression, and a huge amount of lunacy in the way the lyrics are delivered, especially on the second track, "Plod", where they seem to have enlisted the help of Zed from Police Academy for the lead part. This trip into insomnia follows on directly from the first track, and is every bit as good.
Next we are flung headlong into an adrenaline-pumped instrumental track called "Doomed To...", which informs us, with the help of Worf, that "it is a good day to die". The foreboding start, pounding backing and running bassline all combine well with that squidgy electronic sound and samples from "Doom II" and similar games to make you really feel that you are that space marine, running towards a horde of roaring pinkies, and you are about to die.
A change of pace for the short instrumental "Fiend around the corner", which follows a more Dog-Eat-Dog style, and provides a brief, gentle, but very dark interlude before the next track, "Irrelevant Steps". Another entertaining and ludicrous song, this time dealing with Rolf Harris, greener carrots and Reginal Bloater. Hmmm, Yes.
"Timeshare" is up next, a bit of a condensed Fatal Attraction story, followed by "Weather", a mainly-instrumental Ian-McCaskill type thing. Next is "Vague Contempt", which starts to show their "Slightly Miffed" attitude with a dark and disenchanted-sounding track, which is neatly followed by the equally dark, but angrier sounding instrumental "Frank", with a good quote in the middle from either Blade Runner of one of the Alien films, which you'll have to listen to the album for yourself to hear.
Back to the light-hearted stuff, now. "Cheesefish" is definitely my kind of track, a chugging, fast stomper in the same vein as "Doomed To...", which contains the memorable lyrics "It might swim, but not if we throw it" and "All you fish out there - Cheese It!". "Little Strange" is the next one along, which is an instrumental with a lighter feel to it, packed with unusual samples from Star Trek, The Simpsons and many other sources, and flows into "Fastfing", which raises the pace again.
The intro to "10:17" is filled with long, tension-building silences, and is another dark but lively one, along the lines of many a Suicidal Tendencies track, about how badly we are treating the planet and each other, but don't let that put you off. Like all the other tracks, this one is extremely engaging and doesn't let you go until the very end. The last track, "User Friendly" is another fast one, inspired by many years of computer use. Anybody who remembers where the "4-Out Of Memory" error comes from will identify with this one.
For a first album, or in fact for any album, this one is extremely well put-together, with great packaging and artwork, superb production, but most importantly, amazingly good music. I've listened to it for a week, going to and from work, with "Puzzled?" accompanying me in traffic jams and on long blasts, and I'm not tired of it yet. I am getting a little irritated by the chorus to "Plod", which is far too catchy, and keeps rattling around my head all day, but that's a compliment. Every track is a winner, but it's the stupid ones, "Bingo", "Plod", "Irrelevant Steps" and "Cheesefish", which stand out for me.
I called these guys "alarmingly talented" because, apart from this marvellous band they've got, they also have their own label, Slightly Fishy Records, and their own Web-page design company, Slightly Designed. And with all this going on, TinK still finds time to go out and buy Suicidal Tendencies t-shirts! I am really impressed. And I've got an autographed copy, which will be worth millions in the future. Thanks, lads.
Take a look at their site, www.miffed.com, for some samples from the album, and more details about the band. Visit their site, or e-mail Slightly@miffed.com for details of how to get a copy of "Puzzled?". At £8.00 UK or £10.00 Rest-Of-World (both including P&P), it's a bargain. And see if you can name the rest of the samples in "Little Strange". I've got most of them, but some are seriously obscure.