have mersey!

the fore's black and whiteThe Fore | Black and White (Beatnik Geek, 2007) Add the sparkling Fore to the growing list of current bands reveling, with a fountain of buoyant flourish, in the sheer joy of the Merseybeat era. The Fore's smashing first album, fourteen period-hardy slices of one, two, three, four, in-your-face pop 'n' roll, is an instant classic.

Close your eyes and let these boys transport you back to that shining period in British pop music, when sweat poured off the Cavern walls in the service of high-energy, emotional rock and roll that inhabited the public consciousness like nothing before. The Fore is the real deal--young men slinging Rickenbackers, Gibsons and Epiphones and wacking the hell out of a Ludwig Black Oyster Pearl kit, making glorious, gorgeous noise for you and me and the guy next door.

it's the fore, kids!All amped up with every place to go, the Fore blows through with highly-charged, electric songs like the fabulous "Little Louisa," which is so strong it could power Las Vegas during a heatwave. Drummer Simon Thompson pounds the skins with verve. Thompson leads the charge with a toms assault on the lively "Someone New." And on "A Girl Like You," the band kicks out the jams with a spirited nod to Goffin and King's "Chains" and carries through with classic pop styling. Throughout these ace songs, bassist Spencer Hannabuss, lead guitarist Matt Hardy, drummer Thompson and rhythm guitarist Luke Bentley make their instruments sing like Merseybeat songbirds (all four of the boys warble, by the way).

This is top-notch Merseybeat-styled pop 'n' roll straight out of the later 2000s, lovingly informed by the sounds of the Beatles, the Searchers, the Hollies, the Shadows and countless other Merseybeat bands. Take a well-deserved simultaneous, Fabs-styled bow, boys. The rest of you, take the Fore home.

Alan Haber
April 19, 2008

Go to: The Fore