Dead Reckoning is not only my favourite Small Brown Bike record, but it's one of my all-time favourite albums in general. It also served as my introduction to the band - nearly 10 years ago I was at a friend's gig in Cardiff and someone had brought along a distro. For £5 each I picked up Fuel For the Hate Game by Hot Water Music and Dead Reckoning both on cd; it's hard to imagine a tenner better spent - those two albums are amongst the finest albums No Idea Records has released. I didn't know that at the time, and I had help in choosing (in the form of very strong recommendations) but it worked out very well.
I instantly became a very big fan of this album - it's heavier in it's sound than a lot of gruff-punk-rock records and I like it for that. Throughout most of the songs is this rumbling bass line quite high in the mix that is really fun to focus on as you listen. Strangely, I struggled with their other albums a little more because they felt less heavy in places (although I mostly got there in the end). I stocked up on their other albums at Fest one year, so had quite the backlog to work through when I got home.
I guess the strangest thing about Dead Reckoning is its lack of choruses - very few of the songs have anything remotely resembling a chorus. What that means is that you end up getting excited about parts of songs that you might not otherwise, like the shouted lines "This is mine" and "We must understand" in More or Less or "Death is contagious / Death is courageous" in Hideaway. Needless to say, the album has many huge songs - Like a Future With No Friend, See You in Hell, My Own Disaster, This Ship Will Burn and I Will Bury You in Me to name but a few.
For years, Dead Reckoning was the hole in my SBB vinyl collection because I had a copy on cd and there were almost always other things to buy on the times when I did find it in shops. I was putting in an order with Specialist Subject Records at the end of last year so treated myself to a copy. This copy is the pink-ish marble from the 7th pressing (I think) and features some comedy lines etched into the run-off grooves.
Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 11
Cost: £9.75 new
Bought: Specialist Subject Records
When: 17/12/15
Colour: Pink marble
Etching: Side A: "Bed wettening?" Side B: "Bread wreckening?"
mp3s: Download code
