In my opinion the New Town Kings are the best thing to come out of Colchester since Humpy Dumpty. They are a band that make me hugely proud to come from the North Essex town. For years now they've been wowing crowds in the town and throughout the rest of the UK and Europe with their modern take on ska and reggae music, constantly earning more and more fans. It has been seven long years since the eight piece released a new album which is a really long time to wait. During that time they replaced their former frontman Chris White with Dabs Bonner and were hard at work playing shows all over the place. They released a handful of singles and an EP whilst working on a new sound to compliment their new singer. Now, finally, the New Town Kings have self released a brand new album of thirteen brand new tracks named Reach Out. To say I was looking forward to this would be a huge understatement.
The album starts out with its title track, Reach Out. Here we have a slick reggae track where Dabs and the Kings basically re-introduce themselves onto the scene. Dabs has a fantastic versatility in his vocal and shows this off brilliantly on the track, whether he is soulfully singing or rapping in an up-tempo fashion it is superb. This song is followed up by Borderline which sees the band get political. It's about the absurdity of still having lines to separate countries and the ridiculousness of needing special permission to cross between these borders. The message in the song is obviously something that the band feel very strongly about and they've done a brilliant of job of conveying their views here. First of all it's extremely catchy so you will quickly be singing along with the chorus but the real strength in the song is how eloquently written the rest of the track is. It feels as if the band are trying to teach the listener rather than preaching their views. This is amazing. The third song is the upbeat ska number Why You Always Take. This is a wonderful summertime ska track about that friend, that we all have, that only takes and never gives back. It's a song where Dabs lets out his frustrations about the situation but in true ska fashion does it in such an upbeat way.
British Summertime is an ode to growing up in the UK during the summer and making the best of it not often being especially warm. There is something magical about those few days when it does get nice and the whole country has a collective smile on their faces. The upbeat ska vibes continue on the next song, Deep Water. It's more of a humorous song that may or may not be about bass player Tommy's attempts at being a ladies' man and how it often ends in disaster. This is one of those songs that is impossible not to smile along to like a bit of a goon. This is another really catchy track that you'll quickly learn the words to. I kind of feel like this song was written so that a room full of people can sing the song back at the band and in particular Tommy to help him learn "that if you play with fire you're sure to get burnt." The sixth song Music is perhaps my favourite on Reach Out. It's about just what a magical art form music is and how it just makes everything better. We can all agree with that. This is a wonderful song for chilling out with your loved ones on a nice summer's evening with everything in your life just feeling perfect. Dabs's vocals are on the softer side here which just adds to the whole vibe of the song. Listening to the song I just want to wrap my arms around my favourite people, smile and sing away. This is seriously the bees knees of a song.
Francine is a fun swing number that the New Town Kings have been playing live for a number of years now but this is the first time the song has found its way onto a record. Tommy Marchant's walking bass line along with the Kings amazing brass duo of Rory Sadler and Robert Landen really steal the show on this one. It's another song that encourages a huge sing-a-long with some fun gang vocals adding harmonies to the chorus. When a whole room of people is shouting along with the band it adds a big feeling of inclusion and connection that can often be lost between a band and its crowd. Not with the Kings though! The eighth track features a special guest in the form of roots reggae artist Sylford Walker. The song, titled Burn Babylon, is more of a serious reggae style track about wanting to bring down the establishment. This is another one of the Kings' more political songs that not only educates but also gets you thinking. Long Long Road is an uplifting and positive song about following your dreams no matter what obstacles might stand in your way. Much like Music, this is a great chilled out song that's perfect for those great summer's evenings. I love any song that empowers me and this certainly does that. Having a group of people singing "oh now it's a long long road, we've got to walk, we've got to walk" who really believe in these words must be a really special feeling.
Coconut Tree could be one of the happiest songs I've heard it a very long time. Returning to the upbeat ska sound, this song is about escaping from the trials and tribulations of your everyday life and living a simplistic life in paradise. This song is really clever in the way that it is written. With the catchy chorus listing fruit you might find on a tropical island, it does make the track feel a bit silly on the surface. But if you dig deeper and really think about the song, it actually is a great piece of social commentary on how you don't need all of the expensive and shiny things that you think you do to be happy. You actually just need the simple things to be happy. Track number eleven is another song that the band have been playing live for a little while but has finally found its way onto a record. The Hawk is a completely instrumental song that allows the band to really show off what an incredibly talented bunch of musicians everyone in the band is. The penultimate song is named Fine Fine Fine. Fine Fine Fine is another brilliantly uplifting tune about feeling so happy in your life and wanting to spread your love with everyone around you. I can, again, imagine singing this song along with a room full of people – friends, family and strangers – and just feeling so unbelievably positive and empowered. Dabs really has done what he set out to do on the song and spread his love. The final song on Reach Out is the slower ska ballad Lullaby. This is a side of the New Town Kings we've never experience before. Like the title suggests, the song is a lullaby that feels deeply personal for Dabs. Because of this I won't try and delve too much into the meaning of the song but just know it is heartbreakingly beautiful.
Reach Out didn't just surpass every single expectation I had for the album, it completely blew me away. A band shouldn't lose their lead singer and come back with an album that's better than any of their previous work (and that's not a slight on their previous work as I adore it), that's just not how these things usually work. Reach Out is everything I want in a ska and reggae album and then some. It's danceable, I can sing along, it makes me smile and laugh, it makes me think and most of all it makes me feel better. Ska, in all of its wonderful forms, is making a huge statement in 2018 with so many bands in the genre releasing album of the year contenders. Reach Out is certainly one of them.
You can buy Reach Out here: https://www.newtownkings.co.uk/store
Like New Town Kings here: https://www.facebook.com/newtownkings/
This review was written by Colin Clark.
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