Rat Boy

“I’m bored of comparisons jumping the gun / People need to learn to just have a bit of fun” - a  refreshingly self-aware couplet in Ratboy’s latest official single, Get Over It, and Jordan Cardy’s lackadaisical retort to every Jamie T comparison written about him since his debut mixtape hit the blogosphere in 2014. Though it’s hard to fault the first time listener for picking up on glaring common traits shared with the legendary Wimbledon street poet – which are characteristic to both – over the past 12 months, Cardy has defiantly asserted himself as, not another deadringer, but an artist capable of creating as entirely original concept.

His hands-on approach to being the sole author behind lyricism, production, artwork, music video direction, as well as keeping a crew of usual suspects he has known from school as his live band, suggests that he is truly at the helm of the project – allowing him to spit vivid vignettes illustrating down-on-luck characters into life, in full creative emancipation. And given his foray into Hip-Hop, Dance, Psychedelia and even Bossa Nova in his last two singles, lazy lines on lad-rock likeness lose potency and relevance, especially after being drowned out by the clattering pandemonium of his live act.

As the fire-starting golden boy of the moment, Rat Boy will be keen to show off his well-cut teeth in Bristol on September 28th after the relentless touring he’s done this year and the scorched earth that ensued in the form of indie media coverage. On that fateful Wednesday night, I call for a jailbreak from the pastoral Devon downs, with Bristol as its destination, if only just to bellow the frightfully appropriate lyrics to Sign On – with a beer in your hand, a mate on your shoulders and post-graduation unemployment ever-approaching.