4ft Fingers

‘New Beginnings Of Old Stories’ is the fourth studio album from the UK skate punk band that is 4ft Fingers. The album consists of twelve tracks and if you’ve ever heard one of the bands albums in the past then you can expect more of the same from 4ft Fingers here. Never has the band’s sound developed much and always when 4ft Fingers returns with any new material, you always know what to expect; good solid skate punk music.

The album begins with the fairly catchy ‘Where Did All The Legends Go?’, progresses with the punchy ‘Thick As Thieves’, never do you feel here though that the band ever really gets properly into its stride. The album is okay, I don’t feel that it showcases 4ft Fingers at the band’s very best however and always here the energy levels seem to be a little lacking. From start to finish the album is always enjoyable to listen to, having listened to all of the band’s previous albums however I’d have to say that 4ft Fingers has done a lot better than this in the past and that this is the weakest album of the lot.

The tracks always possess an excellent guitar element and fine vocal style also, the tracks lack passion however and always you find here that there is something a little lacking about the music. This is technically a pretty solid album and with tracks such as ‘The Tale Of Benjamin Lloyd’ and ‘Deal Those Cards’ the bands fine skate punk sound is put across incredibly well. The tracks all have excellent choruses and the album is quite interesting to listen to, it definitely lacks edge however and I therefore believe the bands other albums to be of far superior overall quality. All of the bands albums sound quite similar; it’s just that with this one the bands members all seem to be lacking in passion and excitement to record; they’ve done it all before and it just seems to me that they’re getting a little bored of it all.

If you’ve never listened to the music of 4ft Fingers and liked it then you’ll also enjoy this album from the band; it’s a fairly decent skate punk album and always it’s a lot of fun to listen to. The choruses are fantastic to sing along to and there’s a great uplifting quality about the music at all times; comparing these twelve’s tracks to the bands earlier work however and I do feel that the band sounds a little tired here. The music is well put across and in all areas the sound has been strongly constructed; as it’s the bands forth album and they’ve never really changed their style at all though I do feel that 4ft Fingers is here running out of ideas a little.

The band’s sound is quite sturdy throughout here and for the finest sing along moments I’d definitely recommend giving ‘Where Did All The Legends Go?’ and title track ‘New Beginnings Of Old Stories’ a listen. ‘Where Did All The Legends Go?’ is the albums opener and gets the album off to a great start; it’s three minutes and 33 seconds in length and always here the vocals are excellent and the guitar riffs packed full of energy. ‘New Beginnings Of Old Stories’ on the other hand is the albums closing number and is close to four minutes in its length. It brings the album to a fantastic finish and really ends the release nice and tidily. It leaves you excited to hear further 4ft Fingers music in the future, and although the band’s sound is not at its best here for much of this album; I do feel that the future is still potentially quite bright for 4ft Fingers so long as the band can rediscover its enthusiasm.

If you like skate punk music then I’d definitely recommend giving the music of 4ft Fingers a listen; don’t start with this album though as the bands other three are all a lot better than this one. ‘New Beginnings Of Old Stories’ is not a bad album, it’s just a bit average when compared with the bands others and for a better listening experience you should therefore look to the bands earlier albums of ‘At Your Convenience’, ‘From Hero To Zero’, and ‘A Cause For Concern’.

Label: Not On Your Radio
Release Date: April 7th 2008

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This is the bands third album, and sees the UK Skate Punk veterans stepping up their game once again. With every album this band just seems to get better and better and over the years have matured immensely as musicians. They have seemingly on this full length spent much more time on the lyrics than they have on previous efforts as they are much meaningful, and with the newly improved vocal style it just comes out great. The band have kept their fast, hard edged skate punk yet have improved their sound so much since their last offering. The guitars sound better than ever, the drumming is immense, the bass lines boom out of the speakers, and the vocalist really seems to have found his niche.

On this album are twelve songs showing off the bands fine talent better than ever before. In the last few years this band have improved loads – it was no surprise when Golf Records picked up these guys a few years ago as they were already great, but now the band really seem to be hitting whole new levels of excellence. There are some superb stand out tracks on this album such as the ever great ‘Forty Years of Misery,’ the epic tale of life on the road ‘A Life We Choose to Live,’ and stories of alcoholism in ‘Back on the Wagon…Again.’ This band still show no signs of slowing down and there are definitely no signs of the band stagnating. 4ft Fingers still know how to rock out with the best of them and as a result this album has come out smelling of roses. Every track on this album sees the band take on some hard rocking Skate Punk and if this is your kind of music then this is definitely a band that you want to be checking out. There are few bands that rival 4ft Fingers in the Skate Punk genre – in fact at this moment I can’t actually think of a single band that do it better than they do, they really are a credit to the UK scene.

I don’t think 4ft fingers will ever be a bad band – they just seem to keep going from strength to strength and show no signs of stopping improving. Every album sees the band take on a whole new level, with a new musical stance, and a brand new vocal approach to skate punk. The band finally seem to have found what they are best at and have ironed out the flaws of previous albums, producing at last an album of true excellence. I always knew the band had it in them to do it but they just never quite seemed to fulfil their potential – they have finally done it and the end result is a blinder.

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Ok, I haven’t actually heard this band since ‘At Your Convenience’ was released on Jamdown, other than the few tracks played on Sky TV. This band are exactly as I remember them – Cheltenham’s Beer Skate Punx show no signs of slowing down, they are still playing fast, catchy Punk Rock music that you can dance, and most importantly get drunk to!

There are 2 versions of track ’40 years of misery’ on display here on the EP, as well as live versions of the ‘At Your Convenience’ classics, ‘Brickwall,’ and ‘Sense Of Direction.’ These live tracks really brought back memories of a few summers ago when I saw the band pumping these tracks out – they sound just as good live now as they did back then! ‘Sense Of Direction’ is a great track, that has a good old fashioned chorus that’s great to sing along to once you’ve got a few drinks inside of you. Although it was great to hear the classic live tracks being played on this EP, new track ’40 years of misery’ raised the biggest smile on my face. It was good to hear that the band are still producing high quality, good sing along tunes that would almost certainly go down well at a gig. The track has some amazing guitar licks, super bass lines, demon drum beats, and the obligatory perfect vocals. There is nothing better than a good 4ft Fingers track, and ’40 years of misery’ is a classic example of one.

If you haven’t already seen this band live yet then try and get to see them live soon because they really are a class act and if you don’t see them then you are definitely missing out in my opinion. Cheltenham’s Beer Skate Punx are still going strong, and by the sounds of things we won’t be seeing the end of them for quite some time yet!

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