Weekend Intermission is our regular feature where we look at an artist or band not from the Nordic countries, just to mix things up a bit.
They say Hungarian is one of the hardest languages to learn in the world. Fortunately Dirty Slippers sing in English, latterly at least, which is a good thing because they spend a lot of time here, recording, and have had some success too; more in fact than many foreign bands do here.
They appear in NMC quite frequently too – the last time was in September 2023 – and I commented then about the song under review, ‘Wide Open’, “If I didn’t know this was a Hungarian band that previously only wrote in their language I’d guess it was a 1990s Brit Pop band that had somehow slipped under the radar.”
This time it is more like the British 1960s with an ear-pleasing set of guitar riffs which channel the likes of Herman’s Hermits, The Monkees and The Hollies to perfection. In fact if there was ever a competition to assess what those bands would be playing now if they were still writing new songs (actually some of them are but we’ll overlook that) their latest single ‘On Top of the World’ would probably win it outright.
It’s got everything you need for a nostalgic trip down Memory Lane including melody in spades. Once again the song is out of the blocks quicker than Usain Bolt being attacked from behind by a swarm of killer bees and drummer Ferenczi Bebi lays down a beat like an industrial sledgehammer. I swear she’s the reincarnation of John Bonham.
It’s the sort of song I’d expect a political party to select as their campaign song; it has ‘tub-thumper’ and ‘victory anthem’ written right through it. If it isn’t Viktor Orbán then perhaps Starmer or even the Orange Man out there in Florida. In fact you could compare it to Labour’s 1997 anthem, D: Ream’s ‘Things can only get better’.
If only.
But politics isn’t Dirty Slippers’ game. Their content is “love, growing up, family problems, disappointments, and losing loved ones, in short, everything that belongs to our lives.”
They are a sort of musical Coronation Street or Eastenders, sifting through life’s joys, expectations, setbacks and its dirty underwear equally. Perhaps that’s how they got their name…
Find them on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dirtyslippers
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dirtyslippers_official/
