Who I’m listening to this week: Rat Boy

If you aren’t yet aware of mischievous 19 year old Essex lad Jordan Cardy-better known by his sharp pseudonym Rat Boy– then keep your eyes and ears open over the next few months because it’s clear his name is about to become commonplace among the music scene.

With his spiky,spat out, tongue-in-cheek lyrics and indie rock sound, he’s already drawn comparisons to Jamie T, Mike Skinner and Blur.

The refreshing thing about Rat Boy’s music is the mixture of raw, straight-from-the-gutter honesty and upbeat humour that makes you feel like he’s your good old mate sitting across the table from you in your local pub on a Friday evening; he’s one of us. People might hark on about music being about escapism-and of course it is to an extent-but I personally like to feel on the same level as an artist, to listen to what they’re singing about and feel that click of recognition, that “yeah I’ve experienced that” moment. It’s why I love artists with similar gritty honesty in their music, such as Jamie T, Arctic Monkeys and Jake Bugg.

With the pretentious theme of decadence and “look-how-loaded-I-am” so stark within popular music these days, it’s more than refreshing for someone to blaze onto the scene with defiantly delivered lyrics about signing on, shoes with holes in their soles and late night kebab and chips. Because anyone young and living in this country at the moment should be able to relate to what he’s singing about, if they’re honest with themselves anyway. He’s so unabashed in his lyrics, without a trace of sugar coating to be heard- “the girls are young but the men are too old”, “first time I discovered relationships might end friends”, “All my friends are growing up and I seem to be staying the same, going off to their universities…” You can tell that he’s been shrewd enough to write about what he knows/has lived in such a way that the lyrics come across as anything but dull, which we all know the reality of every day life can be.

Yet despite the blunt nature of his lyrics, the tracks really are cleverly put together, particularly on the mixtape which follows a theme of including samples of dialogue and sound etc that shrewdly relate to and fit snugly around the lyrics. Stand out tracks include exquisitely bitter-sweet anthem Sportswear, lighthearted, lads-on-a-bender esque track Laughter and Carry on which is a scornful look back at the education system and the uncertainty of what waits beyond it.

Debut single Sign On is definitely worth a listen to start you off; it’s infectiously catchy and the sort of tune you know you’ll be belting out the chorus to as you stumble home with your mates after one too many this summer.

Seriously, I highly recommend that you check him out and see what you think, particularly if you’re in a bit of a stalemate with music at the moment and want something new and refreshing to listen to. He’s playing some shows in the U.K in September, and I’d say he’s definitley worth seeing before his career really takes off. With my ticket for his London gig booked, I cannot wait to see him perform live!

You can listen to Rat Boy’s Mixtape on SoundCloud here;  https://soundcloud.com/ratboyratboy/sets/the-mixtape