40 Years of Misery (40 Years Of Misery Ep - 4ft Fingers)

Member Name: rleigh

Product:	40 Years Of Misery Ep - 4ft Fingers
Date:	11/07/08 (83 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The first three tracks are worth listening to.

Disadvantages: The final two aren't.

'40 Years of Misery' is a 4ft Fingers EP which was released in August 2004 through Golf Records. It's a pretty non-essential release for most really but one that all big 4ft Fingers fans should definitely own. 5 tracks are included within this EP; one studio recorded song, two remixes, and two live tracks also. The remixes are pretty forgettable, the studio track and the two live songs are however well worth listening to.

Given the title of the EP it should come as no surprise that the studio track which features here is that of '40 Years of Misery'; it's an upbeat skate punk song with an infectiously catchy chorus also. There are elements of ska thrown into the sound here, the track progresses well and it's a fine little song to have a good sing along to. The guitar riffs are excellent here and every element of the bands sound is put across supremely well. It's the first track here and by far the highlight of the EP.

The two live tracks here are those of 'Sense Of Direction' and 'Brickwall'; two tracks taken from the bands debut album 'At Your Convenience'. Both of these tracks are upbeat skate punk numbers with elements of Oi! thrown into the mix also. As they're live tracks the sound quality isn't exactly excellent here, they're pretty good tracks nonetheless however and the energy and excitement of the bands live show has certainly here been captured.

The EP ends on a real downer with the two remixes of '40 Years Of Misery' and 'Brickwall', they're two non-essential tracks that really shouldn't have been included here. These are filler tracks purely included to bolster this release to EP status in order to make it viable for it to be sold at a price greater than that of a single. The two remixes are really quite dreadful, I'd much rather listen to the originals than the remixes and the only thing that these remixes really achieve is to ruin tracks that you originally enjoyed listening to earlier on in the EP.

The '40 Years of Misery' EP isn't exactly an essential purchase, only one studio recording is featured here and two live tracks to keep you interested and entertained. The plus point about this EP is that the three decent tracks come first and you can therefore turn it off after the third track has finished and not have to worry about the final two on the EP; excellent. I'd recommend this EP for fans of 4ft Fingers and for anyone curious to hear the bands skate fuelled, ska tinged punk rock sound; for all others however this is an EP that I wouldn't really recommend wasting your money over.

Summary: '40 Years of Misery' is the 2004 EP release from 4ft Fingers.