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"The Old Record" is a collection of Dance Hall Crashers earliest tracks, from 1989 to 1992. There are 18 tracks in reverse chronological order, so you get the newer stuff first and their first recordings right at the end. The Dance Hall Crashers are best described as dance-hall ska. Although the line-up changed about five times during this period their sound has miraculously stayed very much the same over all the tracks, due mainly to the consistent ska-guitaring of Jason Hammon and the female vocals. The vocals are capably delivered by Elyse Rogers and Karina Denike, although the earlier songs at the end of the album feature Elyse on her own or with Ingrid Jonsson. Their vocals pretty much define the DHC sound, in equal parts smooth and melodic but never screaming. The band sound more like traditional ska than modern ska-punk artists, due to the absence of distorted power-chord guitars (although they make an appearance in some of the solos). The brass section has, in true ska fashion, had six members over their first three years, but they still keep up the mainly trombone and trumpet driven sound through every song.
The album makes a few departures from the subject of love with such whimsical songs as "Street Sweeper", about gang crime, and "Java Junkie", about a guy who's addicted to coffee. There's some classic lyrics in these more unusual songs, such as "He's an addict and thats a fact, but at least he's not smoking crack", or the list of barbeque foods from "Skinhead BBQ". The infamous scoobie doo rap by Elyse in "Old and Grey" is apparently the "most embarrassing thing they've ever written", so that's definately worth a listen! For me, the highlight of the album is "He Wants Me Back", a song which starts off with a dance-hall step and then launches into this incredibly catchy ska stuff which it's impossible not to skank to. "My Problem" and "Fight All Night" are also quite catchy.
Although this album is pretty old now and there's hundreds of other ska-punk bands out there it's well worth it to hear what ska sounded like back in the day, and how good ska with female vocals is (check out Save Ferris sometime as well!). A CD that will get you skanking with the best of them...
Jamie
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