Real Lies
Real Life
October 16 2015 (Marathon Artists)
7.5/10
Words: Alison Mack
Eleven tracks that piece together to form an aural social commentary of London's urban environment may not sound the perfect pop record in theory, (though it didn't do Mike Skinner too badly), but Real Lies manage to convey city life as we may, or may not, know it on this debut work.
Produced by Dan Foat and Nathan Boddy (aka Local Hero), 'Real Life' is electronic pop, north-London style. Here we share the youthful pop highs and lows through the likes of the Jean-Luc Ponty riff of ‘World Peace', early single ‘Dab Housing' with its tales of nighttime plights, including stolen laptops, the trio - Tom Watson, Kev Kharas and Pat King - embodying what it is to be part of the blank generation.
Then there's 'Deeper' about "being 13 years old and first realising what a night out is, or could be", 'Lovers' Lane', depicting teenage exploration and virginity losing, and of course, 'Seven Sisters', which they admit started out as being a send-up of themselves, and ended up being the biggest selling single in British chart history.
While 'North Circular' delivers poetic graffiti, and opener 'Blackmarket Blues' (actually the last track on the album to be written) is "a song about being one of those people who just can’t face going to bed, and the sacrifices you make because of that", 'Gospel' owes its existence in part to 80s south London life chroniclers Squeeze, and "about being part of a generation of sad, young men who can only express their emotions by retweeting Harold Pinter quotes."
Like the motto of a now defunct Sunday newspaper, in 'Real Life' we indeed find "all human life is here".
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