What is it about thumping guitar rock and Pachelbel's Cannon? Green Day borrowed the Baroque composer's bass line for their song "Basket Case" and here we have our very own Murdoc pinching it for their song, "Time Out". If it ain't Baroque, then don't fix it.

"Time Out", apart from being a chocolate bar or a magazine, is a storming, high octane race down the freeway of a song. Like many of Murdoc's other songs, it brings up images of Corey Haim or Michael J. Fox storming through a Calafornian backdrop with the girl of his dreams in an eighties teen comedy.

Well it would do if it wasn't for the lyrics. According to the Murdoc interpretation of this unmade rom-com, Haim or Fox would be having a blazing row with the aforementioned girl of dreams, chuck her out of the car and spend the rest of the film wondering why they split up.

The narrator of "Time Out" is sick of being crowded by a girl who just tries 'to bring me down all the time'. She won't shut up. She won't even leave him alone for a minute. There is 'no way to get away from this'. Poor bloke needs some peace. And he certainly won't get it with the mash of guitar chords, riffs and drumwork going on.

Musically, this song will appeal to hard rockers who love to dance. It's just a pity that there is nothing to actually dance about in the lyrics.

Neither is there anything to sing or dance about in their song "Without You". This song could have been called "Song For the Dumped" if Ben Folds Five hadn't got there first.

"Without You" is infused with tribal drumming and more power chords as Dino T (which, I can only assume, is what you get when you cross the Flintstone's pet dinosaur with a member of the A-Team) demands an explanation for his girlfriend leaving him. ('Was it the things I did? Was it the things I didn't say?'). How dare she kick him when he was down? Perhaps it was because he told her to shut her mouth in another song. Perhaps.

Things don't get any less angsty in the track "Needful Things". It charts the story of a girl's steely determination to run "from the truth". It's an impassioned plea to someone to think before they do something they might regret. It is here that music and lyrics match. There is a sense of urgency to the music which grows throughout the song: "I need to beg, I need to cry, I wish I knew the reason why". It all sounds like he hasn't got much time. It is here that Murdoc truly begin to rock.

With "Another Week", Murdoc have their eye on the time again: 'Another week I've timed, another week I've taken', 'all the hours I tried, all the days of waiting', 'the hands of time twist and turn'). Something dark is happening. It's painful and scary. Dino T even uses the word "nasty". It may be a dubious, over-earnest sounding word, but we get the message, especially with the chilling acoustic guitar's meandering through the melody's dark-night-of-the-soul gloominess.

Which leaves us with the fast paced one and a half minute long "Getting Thru". Once again, we can put aside any thoughts of Murdoc singing about sunny days, picnics in the country side or fluffy little kittens. Things for them are a bit more desperate. As usual. Before they can indulge in such luxuries, they need to get to grips with the basics: 'Teach me all there is to take to make a better way', Dino T sings at a million miles an hour. Once again, you get the impression that time is not on his side.

So there you have it: Murdoc rock - in a very "why did you leave me?" kind of way. Let's hope they sort out those girl problems soon.

24/06/03 - First published on www.bbc.co.uk/gloucestershire on this link