The Authentics
The Right Stuff

Having been compared to The Clash and The Foo Fighters, energetic four-piece, The Authentics, are doing big things in and around their local town of Leicester. ‘The Right Stuff’ is their fourth release, and it starts promisingly but ultimately fails to engage or excite.

It’s brave to name a song after a Saturday night entertainment show or a promotional campaign to drink more milk, and ‘The Right Stuff’ is accordingly upbeat and cheery with fast, twiddly riffs. ‘Eye of the Tiger’-style lyrics like ‘the countdown, you can’t stop it, you’re heading skyward strapped to a rocket’ means it could be the theme tune to Thundercats or one of the events in Gladiators.

‘Four Walls’ starts with what sounds like a slightly put-on voice, like the lead singer’s doing an impression of Ian Watkins from Lost Prophets and trying too hard. A Metallica-style riff and groovy bass help the song but the bassline needs to be stronger to make up for the lacklustre section in the middle.

What really lets the CD down is the dreadful DJ Wandi re-mix of ‘Four Walls’. They manage to squeeze in every late eighties house music cliché in ten painful minutes and the track closes with scary Dr Who style effects on the vocals.

Although likeable, and reportedly great live, The Authentics are nothing different or new. This in itself isn’t always a bad thing, but in this case it’s unlikely you’d want to hear more of the band purely on the strength of this CD.