The Enemy - Away From Here

The Enemy are a band from Coventry, home of The Specials. They’ve been tipped for big things.

It begins with, “I’m so sick, sick, sick and tired, of working just to be retired”. It’s not quite up there with The Who’s, “I hope I die before I get old”. But I suppose the sentiment is equally as false.

This song is an anthem for the bone idle dole waller scum, who prefer to sit in their seat all day, wearing semen stained Reebok tracksuit bottoms, swigging on a can of wild dogs piss and eating ice pops.

The idea of the song, i.e. getting away from a shitty town, is hardly a new idea. “Being a slave to the modern wage”, seems far too close to the shite that Hard-Fi were recently peddling with “Working for the cash machine”. We also have another Hard-Fi cliché of “living for the weekend” with “Saturday is your only highlight, when you go out and live the high life”.

The “away-oh-way-oh” chant of the chorus is a football terrace anthem; it seems that they’re trying to work their away back full circle to the laddism that was produced by Oasis with “Definitely Maybe”. The themes are similar, but The Enemy’s song about not working and getting to another town, still doesn’t come close to Oasis’ anti-work anthem “Cigarettes and Alcohol” or the small-town escapism of songs like “Half The World Away”.

Stabs at popular culture references come with the inclusion of a lyric about Richard and Judy, but I think Jeremy Kyle would be more their style in all fairness. In fact, it probably won’t be long till the singer has some sovereign ring wearing slag up the duff, whilst the drummer tries to scrape enough money together to get his girlfriend a big chunky gold clown necklace, to replace her oval eye hologram one.

The Enemy fail with their attempts at wit, they also fail with their attempts at being edgy. It doesn’t matter how many times the singer tries to snarl like Jam-era Paul Weller, or sneer like Johnny Rotten, it just isn’t happening.

It’s a shame really, I like to remember Coventry for Keith Houchen’s diving header in the FA Cup, miniature moustachioed winger Micky Ginn, Lady Godiva and of course, The Specials. But now I have to remember Coventry for these pox-ridden charvers.

I wish they would get away from here, useless twats.


The single is out tomorrow, the 16th of April.