As singer and bass player of Joey Ramone’s favourite band, The Boys, Duncan Reid rode on the crest of a wave during punk’s original late-1970s heyday as part of a wider collective of friends and peers that included Sex Pistols, The Clash, Generation X and a host of other power-chord pioneers. The Boys remain one of the best-loved and influential bands of their generation. Fast forward to 2014 and Duncan’s new group The Big Heads, featuring multi-instrumentalist Alexander Gold, guitarist Sophie Lynch and drummer Ciara Lavers are powering their way around the globe and astounding audiences from Buenos Aires to Berlin to Dublin and back again...

Following Duncan Reid and the Big Head's first album, Little Big Head, their follow up, The Difficult Second Album, allows the group to further develop their effortlessly entertaining, melodic brand of harmony laden pop punk.

This album's 12 tracks (45 min, 15 sec) look at close shaves in Rio, hen parties in London, growing old disgracefully, and hugging.

The one aspect that was a little annoying about the review digital files we received was that they were automatically assembled to be played in alphabetical order (rather than the track order that the band had no doubt spent a great deal of time working out). I'm not sure if this will be an issue if you purchase and download the album, or whether this is just an issue with the review files, but it's a rather odd and, sadly, increasingly common habit for MP3 albums being released. In fact several of the record labels don't include any information on the albums, so import all of those into iTunes and you'll have hours of fun trying to marry up the tracks in order to listen to the albums.

It's a strangely out of time album that will appeal to those, like me, who fondly remember the tail end of the '70s/'80s punk scene.

7

Nick Smithson