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The Datsuns 'Outta Sight/Outta Mind'

added 11 June 2004 at 12.20

Two years on from their eponymous debut The Datsuns are still managing to do the laid-back, cooler-than-thou thing without coming across as insufferable art-rock pricks with an overwhelming sense of their own importance.

Their status as unreconstructed antipodean rock gods may, on the face of it, have lost some ground to Jet in the intervening years but, truth be told, there’s a fundamental point of difference between the two. Jet, good as they are, merely love their music. The Datsuns live it. In fact ‘Outta Sight/Outta Mind’ operates at such a furiously breakneck pace, constantly on the verge of dissolving into a mess of squalling guitars and snares yet always somehow holding it together, you get the distinct impression that if Dolf De Datsun was told that he could never play or sing another note he’d be straight off the top of the nearest twenty storey building. Screaming "Motherfucker!" all the way down.

‘Blacken My Thumb’ sets the bar for sheer throat-scalping fury early on – Dolf yelping the chorus like he’s just smashed the digit in question with a stainless steel claw hammer. Elsewhere – from the hellfire rock ‘n’ roll rebel rants of ‘Cherry Lane’ to the clarion party call of ‘Get Up! (Don’t Fight It)’ The Datsuns touch on every subject ever addressed by hairy men with loud guitars – yes, both of them.

So, yes, The Datsuns are as one dimensional as ever, but anyone coming to them for insight into anything other than looking cool and fucking girls is kind of at the wrong party. ‘Hong Kong Fury’ is a case in point – it’s fast, it rocks and the chorus sounds almost exactly like cartoon kung fu dog Hong Kong Phooey.

Anyone who says rock needs to do more should listen to this album.

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