CD review, Sep 08. The Business – Mean Girl CD EP (Coretex Records)

I’ll be honest and tell you I’ve never had a clue what Oi was and only had vague ideas of gobby vocals and questionable politics. Taking The Business at face value I find no political issues but the gobby vocals are well in evidence! Coming from a Metal background I don’t find this particularly threatening musically and so the attitude is carried in the vocals and the general working class brotherhood vibe. Nothing wrong with that! Musically I can’t help but be reminded of early AC/DC without the longhaired aspirations. It’s all simple chords, straight beat singalongs and good unthreatening fun with a skilled helping of melody. People might call this punk but to me it’s good rock’n’roll. The 3 tracks are rounded off with what I understand are live track from the London Marquee in 1982 and are a bit more aggressive. Only criticism I have is that I could do with a solid full album from these guys.