Anywhere –  Luke Banter (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

There have been other party prophets through out the years, from Bill Haley’s now seemingly tame all night call to arms, to The Beastie Boys crusade for equal rights for liggers and crashers to Andrew W.K.s fist in the air anthems. And it is in this lyrical vein, and particularly the latter artist, that Luke Banter sets out his stall. He skips his rhymes over an old school, mid-paced hip-hop groove, rather than the aforementioned seat rockisms, one embellished with the trippy electronica and trap percussion of the current climate, but to be honest the song is all about the speed and delivery of the vocal rap, the scatter gun  salvos and the unrelenting bombardment of the lyrical flow. We get it, you like to have a good time!

But there is nothing wrong with celebrating life’s good times, the down time between the reality and drudgery of life and why not just strip things down to what’s important and sometimes what is important is beer, friends, old and new, and music, all night sessions, apple bobbing in a bucket of vodka and just going with the flow. And this is a celebration all right, making its point simply and directly. It is loud, goofy, hedonistic, it does a great job of weaving its sing-song lyrics around the beat.

Then the question comes to mind, is this a parody of the whole mindless party scene? Fight For Your Right was, you know that right? Andrew W.K. isn’t, he’s just big and dumb and loud. I guess it sort of fits in both camps really. If you want it to be a straight down the line party anthem then it can be, if you want it to be poking fun then it can do that too. Does it really matter, just crack open a beer and have a laugh with it.

Actually that’s the long version of what I got from this song. The shorter and more troubled sequence of events is that I put this song on yesterday morning for a quick listen and woke up that evening on a bench outside Union Station with cut lip and two broken fingers, clutching a briefcase full of Taco Bell coupons and a tattoo on my arm that said Diego! Maybe partying is not for me anymore…but there is nothing to stop you indulging, go on…I’m sure you’ll have a great time.