Sensible Gray Cells Postcard From Britain (Easy Action Records)

Let’s just start another argument (not for the first time) – Amongst the various line-ups of The Damned which was the best?. How about the one that produced the ‘Black Album’ and ‘Strawberries’, it has got to be a prime contender. So with this in mind bassist “extraordinaire” Paul Gray and the best guitarist in Croydon, Captain Sensible got together somewhere in the Welsh countryside with the aim of writing a bunch of new tunes about subjects dear to their hearts –  in between visits to the local pub, of course.

The collected songs were further enhanced with a lovely natural drum sound to work with (all recorded in one day by drummer Ant Thickett), the vocals and overdubs were mostly done in Paul’s kitchen. Listen carefully and you may be able to hear the hens clucking contentedly in the background… and with mixing and mastering duties undertaken by Steve “Goldenears” Davies,  the band name “The Sensible Gray Cells’ was decided upon, and the rest of the tale is this kitchen-garage ‘A Postcard From Britain’ album.

From the first bars of ‘Tragic Roundabout’ you find yourself sucked into the narrative world of the one known as Captain, with a more beefed up sound which suggest that’s where recent Damned touring and Paul Gray comes in as continued influence and protagonist respectively, the song is fairly indicative of the early album, built upon Captain’s unique guitar style and Paul’ s trademark Rickenbacker basslines, sadly it seems no recording footage is available, just too much for a BBC3 documentary team it seems! I would have happily watching Captain and Paul in Kate’s Garage, on both sides of the computer/desk working away. The album’s subject matter includes weekend night-time streets of any inner city, the High Street, to some kind of factored brain death of TV land in ‘Halfway To Hollywood’ then there’s the sharper ode ‘Queen For A Day’ and you’re in the familiar, varied song signatures, instrumentation and styles, yet the equation has changed, after all it’s now Sensible Gray Cells’ world. In 2013 their musical and lyrical imaginations have evolved, firstly Paul Gray’s influence, then there’s this brand new cultural and social landscape to pick and choose from, so no wonder really.

The very Sensible brand of unique pop is in evidence on songs like ‘Lottery Of Life’ and ‘City Bird’ which both work well, but I’m drawn to the noise of tunes like ‘Tragic Roundabout’, ‘Stole Into The Night’, ‘State Of The Nation’ in fact i could point to the positives in majority of the songs that make up this album. All well played, falling under, for the most part,  alternative pop banner.  Captain Sensible, Paul Gray and  Ant Thickett aka, Sensible Gray Cells are a happy and effective musical marriage, I see ‘Postcard From Britain’ as a good body of work, that I hope they build from. 7.6
Steve Janes

Watch Sensible Gray Cells recent ‘Tragic Roundabout’ animated video