This is an album that closes with a song called Hey Ho Rock ‘n’ Roll: Delta High have perhaps realised that triumph and disaster are both impostors, to misquote Rudyard Kipling, and just want to have fun.

Delta High take in a variety of sounds and styles. The band’s Neil Jackson — who lived two doors down from Dennis Waterman as a nipper — is apparently classically trained and a composer, so deftly moves between styles; he almost moves into twee, too but equally deftly manages to avoid that. It all sounds summery and was apparently written on the home of rock n roll, Cromer pier.

Opener Santa Fe is a surfer-style song about driving down the highway to Santa Fe, ironically not a coastal town and more famous for its adobe mud homes. The summery vibe continues with the seventies pop hit that never was Let’s Go To The Beach.

Campbell also apparently lived across the road from Culture Club’s drummer (Jon Moss, we guess) and the bouncy Like Crazy nicks a beat from Boy George’s band, with added brass. Other genres covered include 70s funk in Sunshine Beat, gentle surfer punk in Find The Girl, classic Dexy’s soul in Elegance.

We assume this is basically a live set, recorded and sold to fans. This might explain All Of My Friends, the lyric for which goes on “ … should be cool just like you,” a cringy sentence that we assume (hope) is preceded by a funny story live.

We guess Delta High do not expect to retire to the Bahamas on the sales of this but it’s a fun album for fans of cheery grassroots music.

Out now on Ashwood Records.

 

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