The Rakes - 22 Grand Job
[V2]

Originally released back in May 2004, The Rakes’ re-release album highlight, 22 Grand Job, to coincide with their support slot on Franz Ferdinand’s major UK tour this winter.

Ever proud of their London roots, debut album Capture / Release celebrates city living and the ups and downs of the supposed high life; this time looking at the twisted logic and shallow competitiveness of jobs in the City.

What it’s lacking in lyrics, it makes up for with an insanely catchy chorus which has made it a live favorite with fans and is bound to have you singing it on the way home from a club after a few shandies. A song for indie kids, haircuts and Burberry fans a like-an idea which The Rakes, one suspects, would relish.

In homage to their beloved London and in keeping with their contemporaries Razorlight, Arctic Monkies and (tour buddies) Franz Ferdinand, singer Alan snarls with a quintessential British accent... but, unlike said bands, you get the impression The Rakes don’t take themselves quite as seriously.

Years of hard graft, minor label releases and toilet venue tours has resulted in a polished tale of urban life. From the gritty reality of 22 grand job to the work/drink ethic of Work Work Work (pub, club, sleep) (a tale of going to work with your clothes still reeking of Weatherspoons), The Rakes ability to relate to the ordinary without feeling the need to romanticise mundane situations is nothing short of charming.

This band should be the soundtrack to the lives of every young person who isn’t quite ready to work, work, work without the pub, club, sleep, and who isn’t all that impressed with the 22 Grand Job in the City; of those who are trying to make sense of life but don’t quite get it yet...

It’s a thrilling record, and not just for its ethics; it’s the musical equivalent of a carousel; you think you’ve been there, done that, but by the end you’re really excited and want to go round again. They’re the Menswear of the new rock revolution; fun, catchy, cool... but beneath all that gloss, they actually speak a whole lotta sense.