Album review: THE WONDERSTUFF – Oh No It’s…The Wonderstuff

IRL (Released 25.03.13)

This new album adds a second disc of cover versions, ‘The Midlands With Love’, where the Wonderstuff cover a number of songs from fellow Midlands based artists.

Band leader Miles Hunt said this album would be a return to what the band do best and what the fans wanted, namely lots of uptempo songs with sing-a-long choruses. They have certainly achieved that as songs like ‘Clear Through The Years’, ‘From The Midlands With Love’ and their superb anthem of a single ‘Oh No!’ prove. If there is one drawback of the band for me is that some songs can sound a little to similar and lack that distinctive chorus that the band are so good at.

Special mention to the fiddle playing of Erica Nokalls, who drives the faster songs along at a belting pace. The album also marks the recording debut of former Pop Will Eat Itself (PWEI) drummer Fuzz Townsend and he gives a steady beat to drive the good ship Wonderstuff along nicely.

The covers disc is for the most part a real hit. Slade’s ‘Far Away’ lends itself well to a fiddle driven tune and Duran Duran’s ‘Planet Earth’ sounds better than the original! The Move’s hit ‘Blackberry Way’ is another fine cover. UB40′s ‘One In Ten’ fares less well though.

Fans of the band will love this album, particularly as it has been some time since a full studio album. The covers disc is a real bonus and their covers of say Slade or Duran Duran would slot nicely into daytime radio airplay or being bang up to date a Spotify playlist!

****

Jason Ritchie

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SKY VALLEY MISTRESS Too Many Ghosts (New Heavy Sounds)

Featured Albums w/c 7 April 2025

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12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003 – 2024 (Melodic Hard Rock)
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