Vanilla Muffins - A Little Night Music
Sunny Bastards Records
In case you missed my review on the “The Triumph Of Sugar Oi!” compilation last week I’ll say it one more time; The top boys of Sugar Oi!, Vanilla Muffins, are back! “The Triumph Of Sugar Oi!” featured one new track, “The Sugar Oi! Jive”, but prior to this release Sunny Bastards Records already announced a 12” maxi-EP with all new recordings. Needless to say I was super stoked when this news reached me because as stated in my review earlier this month Vanilla Muffins are, and always will be, one of my all-time favorite bands.
It has been over 11 years since their last, in my opinion classic and absolute favorite, album “The Drug Is Football” came out and I was wondering if the Swizz were able to come close, or even top it, with all new material. “The Sugar Oi! Jive” is a real fun and catchy track, but didn’t come close to what “The Drug Is Football” brought us. And if I have to be completely honest, “A Little Night Music”, the title of this 12” maxi-EP, can’t reach the level of quality these living legends brought on their last full-length either that contained ‘nür hits’. Does that make “A Little Night Music” a bad release? Of course not, it’s Vanilla Muffins for crying out loud, the band without a single bad release in their discography!
On the A side you will find two brand new songs, “It’s All A Joke” and “Modern Football Sucks”, tracks that remind me of the mid-90’s era of Vanilla Muffins during “The Devil Is Swiss” and “Ultra Fine Day”. Super catchy and extreme melodic songs that are stuck into your head in no-time. Especially “Modern Football Sucks” is a Vanilla Muffins track pur sang, the boys from FC Basel already sung 11 years ago in the song “The Pride Of The North”; “The season tickets cost too much, the merchandise is crap.” and “In the early days, they had a better scene. No stewards and no sign of the police. The fans could smoke and fight on match day. The manager has never been to jail.”, and it only has gotten worse since then. The message isn’t sugarcoated, the Oi! certainly is so despite the message being a stand against and a big fuck you to ‘Modern Football’ it still puts a smile on my face.
Side B contains two cover songs, “Dreaming” (originally performed by Blondie) and “Radio” (originally performed by Nichts), two new wave classics from the late 70’s and early 80’s. Of course Vanilla Muffins altered these versions in both lyrics, Blondie ‘met you’ at the restaurant and his pleasure is a pint of beer while Blondie preferred a cup of tea in “Dreaming” and in “Radio” the Muffins added those synthesizer sounds again like in “The Sugar Oi! Jive”, that gives an extra 80’s feel to it. Both songs are originally sung by a woman and especially in Blondie’s cover you can hear back that some of the higher notes are a real nutcracker. It also bring, as far as I can recall, the first ever Vanilla Muffins song recorded in German, “Radio”.
Fans don’t have to hesitate, you can buy “A Little Night Music” ‘blind’. Don’t expect the next “The Drug Is Football” because this maxi-EP isn’t. It do is another, more than, proper addition to the collection of the kings of Sugar Oi!, Vanilla Muffins. A 12” I can literally flip over and over and sing-along to all day long with a big smirk on my face. Feel good Oi! music? Hell yeah!
