Written by: Alex Green

As catchy as Herman’s Hermits and as tight as The Jam, The Cocksure Lads are a band that have no shortage of punchy pop hooks.

Mad Lad Plan is an unreasonably catchy, thirteen-song platter that summons The British Invasion with the kind of sonic accuracy that will make you wonder whether or not The Cocksure Lads were there the first time around and you missed them somehow.

Were they there?

They were.

Or were they?

Merely a trifle, as they say, as the band’s biography will be left to your late night Wikipedia-ing, but the matter at hand is a record so good, it needs to be heard to be believed.

With its birds-are-coming-out call and response opening “In London Town” might as well be the band’s theme song; the infectious Motown backbeat of “They All Wanted Me Back” underpins the autobiographical tale of the ‘Lads themselves and “Paddington Way” has all the early fire of Paul Weller, circa In The City.

Elsewhere, the piano ballad “England My England” sounds like a Billy Bragg cover, or a song he should cover immediately; the soulful blast of “Easy Peasy” out-Strypes the Strypes and the lightly strummed “The Surprising Thing” is quietly affecting.

Every song here is a winner–this is a band blessed with a deep reservoir of talent that’s as wide as a great big sea and filled with endless moxie and nerve.

It’s a great record.

Go get it.

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