3 out of 5

Label: Jump Up Records

Produced by: Andrew Porter and The Prizefighters

The Prizefighters are classic ska, playing sweet, horn-laden upbeats that flow between rocksteady swagger, 2-tone pep, and some dashes of reggae. But they’re also kinda punk. …Not in that 90s way, where scrappy three-chord tunes get a trumpet thrown on top, more just in an ethos: the group goes their own way, or at least that’s how it feels for the impressive first half of Follow My Sound.

A perky instrumental intro gives way to ‘Outside My Window’ , and The PFs’ qualities are immediately apparent: stirred to action by the emotive, raw vocals of lead singer , the group takes a similarly aggressive tack with their compositions, always nailing melody first but also playing with urgency; the songs have an organic looseness to them that allows room to wiggle – to dart just slightly right or left where a “traditional” ska tune might coast. And though this description might suggest otherwise, The Prizefighters’ formula works even when the mood is mellow, with Aaron Porter crooning on his favorite topic of love and relationships: his passionate delivery still leads the way, and his bandmates now apply patience with evoking the right beats; the right strum; the right pressure on the horns.

The toolbox ends up seeming a bit limited, though. After the halfway point, the general song style switches to something more limited and repetitive, or function as structural / tonal repeats of tracks from the first half. This familiarity does allow one to appreciate the album’s warm, living room production, though: if losing the uniqueness of first impressions, The Prizefighters still play together exceedingly well, and the album just sounds good.

Ska’s a tough scene to stand out in. It’s almost built on a template that relies on a lot of what came before, or callbacks to it. And The Prizefighters’ Follow My Sound ultimately succumbs to that as well, falling back or recognizable melodies and structures, but even being able to deliver a half album’s worth of catchy, incredibly fresh feeling tunes is absolutely noteworthy, and worth supporting.