Labels: The First Time
Review by: Andy Malcolm
Here: a band named after a round of beer and a type of car. Think about it.
Today was the first day after P-Day, handing in my final year project. But I still have a load of coursework to do. So I went and sat in the nearby park under the pretense of doing some work. Good idea? Not really, I didn’t do any work, but the weather was glorious, and there was cool stuff to look at, like the clear blue sky, and a crazy (nuts) squirrel, some particularly amateur student film makers, and yeah you probably guessed what else could be in this list so I won’t insult your intelligence. All that was needed was a cassette player and a tape of ‘Nothing Feels Good’. I would have lied there all day.
Right, FF. One of them bands that probably styles themselves on Cap’n Jazz and Braid. Also, they are particularly like Spy versus Spy, or Kossabone Red (who’s album I have just rediscovered again, and I have to say it R.U.L.E.S.), but not quite so good. Definite potential though.
They do all weird bouncy rhythms, have hoarse yet cute vocals (definitely SvS and Mid Carson July comparisons), and flit around a lot over 9 relatively short songs. Sometimes though, they want to do too much at once, and the songs seem very pieced together rather than as a whole. I get confused as to which song they are on and it doesn’t flow too well. Sometimes I can’t spot when they are just doing stop-start, or when they have begun another song. A little too ambitious, and not something that either the Spy’s or Kossabones seem to suffer from much.
Yup, there is brilliance here too, I love this style when they are doing that juddery hardcore thing, and the next minute they slow down and go all pretty – “A Winter Calendar” ruling the most in these stakes. And the lyrics are ever soooooooo emo, which made me *smile*. So good stuff, worth picking up if you, like me, find that spazzy/cute emo-punk is your emo noise of choice.