Protex Sticking With You LP
PROTEX came out of late ’70s Belfast on Good Vibrations, same as the UNDERTONES, riding a wave that was still fresh at the time, when bands like the RAMONES and the NERVES had shown that punk and power pop could live in the same song. Their 1978 single “Don’t Ring Me Up” is the one people remember, since the album they recorded for Polydor sat in a vault for 30 years. They reformed in 2010, and this is their third album of new material, with guitarist and vocalist Aidan Murtagh the only original member left. What you get here is eleven tracks (most running past the three-minute mark) of pop rock played by a group of guys who have been doing this for a long time. It’s laid-back and competently made, and there’s clearly an audience for it, just not one that needs things to always be harder, faster, louder. The high point for me is the closer, “Slug City,” the album’s most rocking track and maybe the one that sounds most like the kids that they used to be.
