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For such a fresh-faced innocuous-looking foursome, on ‘Such a Fool’ The 22-20’s serve up one hell of a grandiose racket. It’s indie-rock at its unadulterated best, packed with substance and belly and mercifully not blatantly trying to emulate someone else. In fact, the cascading wall of guitars and earnest vocals are more akin to the likes of the thoroughly excellent Six By Seven than certain indie lightweights treading the boards at the moment. With ‘Such A Fool’ being arguably the pinnacle of their otherwise pedestrian debut album, the burning question is whether the Lincolnshire lads will be able to adhere to such a winning formula in the future. We certainly hope so.
Perhaps the most disappointing thing about working at the mighty Gigwise is that we’re not paid per word. If we were Being 747’s protractedly titled ‘The Girl Who Fell Asleep Whilst Watching Her Life Flash Before Her Eyes’ would have clocked us up a tidy sum. As for the music, well the four-track EP is a collection of quirky tunes with very clever lyrics. The big rub is that it’s all delivered pretty blandly – imagine David Gedge without passion and drive (basically the things that make him so great) and you’d have front man Dave Cooke’s style. Still great title though.
Obviously The*Ga*Ga*s are desperate for a bit of much-needed attention, oh yes they’ve been terribly naughty and called their new single ‘Sex’. How rude of them! The tune itself is much as you’d come to expect from the rockers – dull, trashy glam-rock that’s unfortunately devoid of individuality or spice. Worse, the repeated shouting of “Sex, sex, sex, sex…” from singer Tommy at the end is incredibly grating and is about as welcome to the lug holes as a particularly severe strain of ear infection. Still true to their inherently rebellious streak the black clad masses will probably love it.
Much like the confectionary item they’re named after, Marshmallow are immediately appealing, fluffy, sickly sweet, yet may well leave you feeling nauseous when you inevitably overload. On the ‘Casting Couch’ Marshmallow are whimsical in a Belle and Sebastian kind of way and incredibly buoyant. Thankfully aside from all this frivolity, the lads have written an extremely catchy tune that’s sure to leave the likes of Jo Whiley and other purveyors of daytime radio quaking with excitement. Call me Mystic Meg, but you can place your bets on Marshmallow filling the gaping void in the market that Dodgy left when they split in the late nineties. Oh joy!
In a week when weird band names and song titles have been far more interesting than the tracks themselves, along came The Most Terrifying Thing. Undoubtedly, apart from the band name, the best thing to come from listening to ‘80’s Love Affair’ is that for a Liverpool-based band ‘TMTT’ sound nothing like The Zutons and The Coral, or the various Beatles clones that habitually emanate from the city. Despite being far from original or exhilarating with TMTT occupying the beaten track trodden by Radiohead, Muse and the likes, ‘80’s Love Affair’ is a yearning and sprawling affair and shows a lot of potential. Released as a download only, this is well worth checking out.
With a whole host of figures in the music industry (Zane Lowe, Steve Lamacq and Mark Radcliffe to name but a few) predicting magnificent things from Smother, the Essex three-piece have got a mighty reputation preceding them. Listening to ‘Use’ it’s clear Smother tick all the right boxes for the typical A+R man as they’re just out of their teens, lively, tight, slightly grungy and come complete with a healthy spattering of angst to keep the troubled youngsters out there satisfied. Clearly the lads were brought up on a diet of Sonic Youth, Nirvana and rockers cut from the same cloth – hopefully Smother won’t simply be homage to their influences, as there’s definitely a lot of promise here.
Reviewing stack loads of music every week can turn even the most docile and impartial person into a hardened cynic. In fact after a little while you develop a sixth sense, where even the sight of a single cover will conjure up foreboding musical intuitions. Coming in a fetching black sleeve with neon-pink lettering Sunshine’s ‘Electric! Kill! Kill EP’ is much as anticipated. The tracks are slightly dark, energetic and very sprightly, yet ultimately vacuous. Front man Kay’s Blink-182-esque nasally vocals are a bit irksome as well. The Czech Republic’s only musical export that springs to mind – from listening to this, hopefully Sunshine will be the last.
