The Urge

Puttin The Backbone Back (1990)

tonyregret

The Urge were one of the original founders of the skacore sound, and this independent release is has a much different sound then anything i've heard from them before. Before they broke up, they rereleased all of their original albums. The only members on this release that lasted to the end were vocalist Steve Ewing and bassist Karl Grable.

The quality of the album itself is very good considering it was a D.I.Y. album recorded in 1990, a time when ska was still unknown. Many of the songs have a Fishbone type feel, with the funk slap bass mixed in with the clean upstrokes and horns. The singer goes from toasting to straight singing with relative ease.

As for the songs, their are 10 alltogether and they are each about 3 minutes long. "She don't care" opens the album, and is a straight ska dancing song with a few metal breakdowns towards the end. "Face today" and "Beat the system" are two of the more slower type reagge style songs, and in both songs the saxaphone does get a little annoying. Their horn section was made up of a trombone and a saxaphone, and the sax dominates the album. "Just don't know" and "Had to happen" are both full of energy, and both standout from the rest of the album.

All things considered this was an above average debut cd. For anybody familiar with The Urge, they will be shocked to hear how different they were when they first began playing. For anybody looking to get a new ska album, this might be the record you need. You can hear the potential they had going for them on this, and you see it in full force on later albums in their career. I will give this a 7 out of 10, only because the saxaphone is a bit overdone and two of the songs sound exactly the same. You can order this and any of their other indie albums at Vintage Vinyl.