You'll rarely find me preaching atop the soapbox of originality. I never bought into the idea that just because something hasn't been done before means it has an inherent advantage over excellent but derivative work. Spurious logic, if you ask me.

The Action Time is a co-ed London sextet that are too busy nurturing and their free-spirited scorn at everything in the world to be bothered with establishmentarian concepts like "originality." They wallow in the anger and attitude of youth, living through the personas they've created for themselves: Susie Sparkles, Miss Spent Youth, Black September, CC Rider, etc. I picture them spending lots of time practicing walking down the street together with a synchronized, ganglike swagger. The fuck-all attitude-- contrived or sincere, who cares?-- comes across perfectly in their music. I never even questioned the motives behind their rage. Good for them. They're young; they'll grow out of it someday.

Whether they're nicking the cracked screech of Joe Strummer or referencing icons of revolutionary Black literature like Eldridge Cleaver and James Baldwin in the titles of songs ("Soul on Ice" and "The Fire Next Time," respectively), the Action Time have made their debut album their pastiche manifesto, their vent at their myriad enemies.

Versus the World opens with the call-to-arms "Soul on Ice," a fiery fusillade of raw, distorted guitar tempered by retro keyboard accents and an overall Phil Spector girl-group dynamic. A bit later, the Action Time offer up the pure, full-tilt fun of tit-for-tat vocals in "Stranded on a Lonely Planet." September engages in a sassy dialogue with Sparkles and Miss Spent Youth on top of a distorted grind that urges people into doing early '60s dances. The other superlative is the made-for-a-single old-wave sound of "(We're Just) Killing Time." The raging guitars yield briefly and slightly in favor of some keyboard squealing and sweet vocals about proletariat alienation.

With climbing melodies and the reverb on overkill, "Stay in the Car" feels like a Rock*A*Teens outtake. After this early misstep, the pace doesn't falter again until the last couple of songs. But Versus the World ends with two consecutive duds, one of which, "I Will Fear No Evil," is a good example of the road not taken: it's a poor execution of the ideas that they've already spent the record proving they can tackle.

Bringing to bear the scrutiny of the audiophile on Versus the World would almost surely result in disappointment. It's sloppy music, all heart and no technique. Yet, when listening to the Action Time, the old feel older, and the conservative more conservative. All by virtue of considering the chasmic distance between where you are now, and the embarrassments, audacities, idealism and consequence-less fun of youth that the Action Time embody. But as youth, they couldn't care less. And then sometime during the third or fourth listen, you suddenly don't, either; it's enough that they're reckless and self-important.

-John Dark