“… a bitter brew of betrayal, torment and regret, whipped up into a fiery song of defiance” / Demon Street by Billie Reid

Taken from Billie Reid’s ‘Ode To The Dudes’ album, the re-mixed (single) version of ‘Demon Street’ is an angry, revved-up interpretation of the more stripped-back original. The single captures Australian axeman Phil Bradley (The Jackals, Sub Truck, Brutus) at his fiery best, locked in a brutal Strummer-esque guitar-attack with the track’s stomping percussion, whilst Reid relays a tale of love and loss with the bile and poetic fervour of a punk troubadour.

Alongside the intensity of Bradley’s playing and Reid’s broken-hearted cut-throat lyrics, the track is wrapped around the warped production sounds of a 1950’s science-fiction movie. ‘Invasion Of The Mind Snatchers’ this ain’t, as Reid recounts an encounter with a lascivious lover already tied to another man … “I had me the prettiest lover, prettiest lover in the land. But she was the girl of another, and I could not win her hand”, he sings, before declaring himself a resident of Demon Street – a place that is well understood to be entirely devoid of enchanted lovers.

The song’s lyrical contents are at once both spiky and poignant. In lesser hands it could have come off as a mere exercise in navel-gazing sentimentality. Instead Reid presents the listener with the fiery sound of defiance, defeating the sense of apathy commonly felt during a romantic break-up. Although he cherishes this woman, her lies have taken their toll. As Reid himself sings … “I’m not about to waste my life on someone else’s whim”. Heartache is for assholes, he says, and he takes those feelings that remain intact for his lover, mixing up a bitter brew of betrayal, torment and regret, whipped up into song form. Anger, he reminds us, is an energy after all. When your world falls down, it’s better to feel something rather than nothing at all.

‘Demon Street’ is sure to provide an ideal swig of Dutch courage for anyone undergoing a painful, messy breakup. Why mope around when you could, like Billie Reid, count your losses and continue to kick ass! It’s a song which highlights the value of self-respect and pride, providing the perfect anaesthetist to the self-pitying indie bands that clog up the musical charts.

Liam Allen