Classic Album Review - Well, Well, Well by Milburn

Milburn are an Indie Rock band from Sheffield and are one of the most popular in the area, their debut album Well, Well, Well released in 2006 was heavily praised but does it live up to it’s hype in 2021?

The album starts with it’s namesake song, the lyrics portray someone who has been wronged (maybe cheated on? Line “You sold yourself and sold me off down the river” seems to imply this) I think this song is the perfect way to kick off the album and the instrumentals are infectious and make you feel nostalgic.

Up next is “Showroom” the song is about someone who tries too hard to be like everyone else and trendy but is just making themselves look like an idiot, the topic of the song is different from the norm. While also making the song a bit more light hearted and vibey but, also show what a lot of people have on their minds about other people but don’t speak their mind about it. The instrumentals are very similar to the rest of the album.

Next is the most iconic song on the album “Send in the boys” but this songs lyric is much darker than what the sound of the song suggests. The song is about a kidnapping or hostage situation that has to be stopped by some local lads before the police arrive, the dark lyrics are masked by the cheery style of the band. This song definitely lives up to the hype.

Up next is “What about next Time?” this song is about someone who is hiding the fact that they are doing things like stealing but everyone knows it. This song is a lot more melodic than other songs on the album and freshens it up a little. It’s a welcome change from the norm.

Up next is “Lipstick Licking” from what I can analyse from the lyrics I think this song is about a drunken fight with a friend, the song has a pub song feel and I can imagine an underground band playing this song in a pub down Sheffield.

Up next is “Cheshire Cat Smile”, this song is about someone who goes through a lot of relationships and never learns. A lot of the songs on this album don’t have many lyrics but the lyrics are normally more straight forward and simple which is a good thing for indie music because they are supposed to be simple.

The next song “Stockholm Syndrome” is self-explanatory in what it means, Stockholm syndrome is when a hostage gains a psychological bond with the kidnapper, this could be a metaphor for the government, this song is great because it’s lyrical contents are empowering and deep but the song keeps that cheery indie style which is a theme of the album.

Up next on the album is “Storm in a Teacup”, the vocals from lead singer Joe Carnell are exactly what I want from an indie song and the Sheffield accent just makes it perfect. The instrumentals are classic and just make me happy, the term “storm in teacup” means being dramatic for no reason so the song is about someone worrying about something that doesn’t matter.

The next song “last bus” is another melodic song which seems to be about a night out where you’ve had too much to drink and have to leave. This song captures the drinking culture in Yorkshire and Britain in general which a lot of people will relate to.

The next song “Brewster” I don’t have much to say about it which isn’t a bad thing, the song has a similar topic to Showroom but it’s about a person everyone loves instead of hates.

The last song on the album is another melodic number “What you could’ve won” is a very good choice to end the album on. The song is about a women who waited too long to ask a man out and he eventually moves on to someone else, the bass on this song and on the album as a whole felt like the bass stuck out and which was really impressive.

Overall if I was going to recommend an indie album to someone this would definitely be in the conversation, it definitely made me proud to be a Yorkshiremen and it’s a great alternative to the likes of Arctic Monkeys, I’d give it a final score of 7.8/10.