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Emo, Screamo, Beano!? I hate genre categories. Growing up off the back of grunge and being perplexed as a teenager as to why Alice In Chains were lumped into the same category as Mudhoney; both great bands but so completely different.

Damn media messing it all up again!

They are there for a reason though and Southampton’s excellent Not Advised most probably falls somewhere under the latest genre variation of ‘emotional rock music’. To many people, this facet alone will instantly form people’s opinions. Bollocks to that! Is it any good?

Quite simply, yes it is.

The chin-stroking arty types will hate this but then they are also the same types who always look so bloody depressed at the gigs they actually do go to. Not Advised doubtless couldn’t care less. They are horny young people writing music for horny young people! Music meant for the alternative youth to forget about acne, the school bully and a billion hormones impacting on how they feel each day. We’ve all been there so who are any of us old cunts to have a moan about how musically one-dimensional it might actually be.

Arguably, Not Advised does not produce music of any Earth-shattering uniqueness; Panic at the Disco should probably sue them! Sorry guys, I know it is an obvious thing to write, but it is not exactly a million miles from the truth is it!? However, Not Advised must know far better than anyone dumb enough to point that out to them.

Err, does that make me dumb? Most probably!

What Not Advised does very well though is write great big bellowing choruses for the masses to sing along to. They have huge hooks, great musical abilities and enough charisma to carry it off superbly and almost in style!

Guitar parts to keep the air-guitar boys happy bounce along merrily with plenty of perfectly executed and intelligently written ‘us against them’ lyrics. The rhythm section is particularly solid. This is clearly the work of a band that has cut its teeth for some time on the live circuit.

At this point in any band’s potential career, it means everything to make sure your CD sounds good. Not Advised have clearly understood this and there are no loose edges or cheap studio tricks employed. The production is faultless. It sounds MASSIVE.

All five songs are punchy, well-executed and totally suitable for radio play and thumping out of club sound systems. My only big criticism of the CD is the confusing choice of song titles. Not Advised are unashamedly going for a particular sound and audience, so it seems bizarre to give the songs names that bare little relation to the bouncy sing-a-long choruses. Only the opening track ‘A Red Light Situation’ repeatedly makes good use of the word “situation”. A mute point perhaps and one that I wouldn’t normally give a toss about; pleasing the masses is not something I generally care about personally, but Not Advised seemingly want to get noticed by the industry, so it seems to be an ill-advised and miscalculated move to do this.

I’m nitpicking though, despite some of my more critical departures in this review, ultimately ‘Fight For This’ is a great sounding CD by a hard-working local band that regardless of musical preferences deserve the recognition they are getting. If they throw in a tad more individuality to set them apart from the many other sound-a-like bands out there they could well become very big indeed and in the process grab the attention of a more mature audience as well, thereby giving them the longevity they need to sustain a healthy, respectable and long future in the business. After all, the kids do grow up eventually.