Labels: Urinine
Review by: Tom Sloan
I guess the fact that I found myself humming the first tune on this e.p. all day yesterday means perhaps I like it a bit. Aesthetically, I would compare them to the melodic, poppy indie-rockage of a post-4 minute mile get up kids, and yet there the songs vary quite well over the six tracks. In fact, it is the very very very occasional braid-isms (a couple of semi-shouted backing vocals and some treble-y melodic guitar lines here and there), or the fact that I’m kinda reminded of the 8 bit revival one or two times that have endeared me a little more to this than I’d credited on the first spin.
Opener, “tip of my tongue’, has that infectious repetitiveness that some bands seem to be able to achieve that results in melodies becoming lodged in your brain, and it’s a solid old song. “Lampost lights’ is a bit more of a pop-punky affair, and yet bridges off into a nice refrain with piano and that flash of wandering clean guitar work that I was talking about.
The next track has some quirky keyboard effects and a slightly aggravating melody in the verse part that detracts from a catchy chorus, and “burn this mother down’ also has that effect of inspiring very few words or strong feeling either way from this reviewer. Surprisingly, the song that follows explodes into some raucous, shouted punk opening, before descending into this stoner/garage-rock work out”¦weird.
It all finishes with a stop-starty closing song that also belies some kind of inherent desire of this band to rock out with wanky riffs if and when possible, as they do so towards the end. I don’t mind it though; it gets to be listened to the whole way through.
Today I am humming monotonously to myself the theme tune to “the magic roundabout’, and put it this way: I’m not rushing out to buy a kid’s t.v. show’s soundtrack compilation, or anything else by the musicians who came up with it. Go figure.