3 out of 5

Label: Prize Fighter Sound System

Produced by: John Miller

Since I came of musical age during the brief ska surge of the 90s (unless liking ska is maybe just a teen rite of passage, as one passes through punk?), the genre has always offered a bit of nostalgic wonder for me, my ears pricking up at the familiar sounds of certain bands, or the generalized sway of 2-tone. But beyond a very. very few groups who, I feel, put a particular stamp on things, it’s also not a scene I ended up getting too far with, and so that little nostalgia buzz has me looking up some stuff and giving it a spin, thinking now I’ll discover / rediscover all these skanking gems, but no, same as before: an awful lot of it – punkier or more classic – ends up sounding like other bands in that same vein. It often doesn’t help that similar lyrical themes of let’s-all-get-along tend to be shared as well.

On one such recent “let’s give it another try” tour, helped along by a Jump Up! Records comp, featured a track by The Prizefighters, one of several standout songs on the set, but the clear winner to my ears. Enough such that I gave an album a try, and was mighty impressed: the group’s earnest rocksteady style cut a fascinating line across a classic flow and a kind of modern nerviness that I found really appealing, with a bit of somewhat generic, but sincere, lyricism from frontman Aaron Porter. It made for quite a mix, and was consistent across the PF catalogue I started to collect, much to my joy. And lo: I was just in time for a new release: Punch Up.

…On which the group tones down some of their excitingly frayed edges, dials in the smooth rocksteady jaunt, and sings a lot about lets-all-get-along.

I get it: the last few years have been pretty fraught, and it’s good to take comfort in the familiar. And the group’s been at this for a bit – since 2006 – so I’m not going to begrudge a long-running band a desire to, in some ways, relax their sound a bit. Which doesn’t mean Punch Up takes it easy, as there’s still a lot of fun in the melodies The Prizefighters milk from their horns and keys and guitar and bass, and Porter’s take on the aforementioned typical subject matter can be pretty charmingly chummy. So the group wanted to craft a good time on Punch Up, and they succeeded. It’s not like it’s wholly unrecognizable as their sound by any means, as it’s always had a backbone of classic ska / reggae going for it, though it is much morso the entire skeleton this time. It’s pleasant stuff.