Codefendants – 'This Is Crime Wave' Album Review

Tracklist:

1. Def Cons

2. Abscessed (feat. Get Dead and Onry Ozzborn)

3. Fast Ones (feat. The DOC)

4. Suicide By Pigs

5. Disaster Scenes (feat Stacey Dee)

6. Prison Camp

7. Suckers

8. Brutiful

9. Sell Me Youth

10. Coda-fendants

Having listened to this more than a few times I’m still not 100% sure what this album is or how they created it, i just know that it’s fantastic. The band claim to have invented a new genre of music by borrowing from a number of other genres and merging them. I honestly can’t decide if that’s true or not but what I do know this is that as a body of work this sounds like nothing else out there just now.

Who are there influences, who knows? What are they trying to do? I don’t have a scooby! What I do know is they should be encouraged to do this a lot more. It’s not often you listen to something and spend the entire album both confused and enjoying everything you hear.

Individual songs clearly fit into various genres but they also all fit together. This album shouldn’t really work, it doesn’t make sense conceptually, but it not only works it’s a triumph!

Codefendants are about to embark on their debut US tour, if your reading this in the states you need to go see this band.

The album includes the first new recording from D.O.C in 19 years. Clearly he felt there was something worth getting involved with and he really isn’t wrong. He sounds like he’s having fun, but then so do the band. Saxophones, check, electronic music, check, rap, check, guitars, check, acoustic, check, rock, check. Are you beginning to get the feeling this is something different? Good, you should, now go listen to it!

At one point I thought the band were going to turn into Dermont Kennedy, at one the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, then it sounded like the Pogues had turned up, at yet another the Fun Lovin Criminals, yet again they sounded almost like Limp Bizkit. It they then almost become Beck then almost semisonic plus there feels like an undercurrent of Tom Waits. To say this is confusing is an understatement but it’s never less than brilliant, totally engaging and effortlessly cool. It’s almost annoying just how good this is!

It’s genuinely too hard to pick stand out songs as it’s such a diverse and interesting album, once I started listening I kept it on repeat, it felt like I was I was shuffling a playlist from a number of cool and excellent bands but the reality is it’s the same band all the way through with a few guest appearances.

If they are this good on their first album just how far can they go? Who knows but it’s going to be a wild ride!