Labels: Rat Patrol
Review by: Andy Malcolm
Diamonds gets us off to a ropey start on this EP, with dodgy MTVmo style vocals over cheesey guitars. It has that horrible screamy style where it sounds like the guy is swallowing air whilst yelling. You know the ones I mean. I hope. The chorus though is catchy and rocking, although I could do without the soloing guitar in the background. The dodgy guitar is something that crops up on a number of songs.
Luckily there are much better efforts on the CD, Imogen is a driving rocker in the vein of later Hot Water Music, gruff dual vocals and some well applied, tuneful force. Pistolmouth offers up similar energy and sounds, this is more like it. After 4 shortish tracks, you get the 6 minutes of Palpitations, which is easily the best song on here. Chuggy post-hardcore that slows things down substantially from the other songs, but I am a sucker for that Texas is the Reason guitar sound and this song has it in bucketloads. It’s a lot cheesier than TiTR (quite an achievement!), but it really stands out amongst the rest of this EP as being something a little different and more accomplished. No surprise when it drops out for the quiet part either before coming back for the spiralling climax. The Slowdance real nail the style and if I was in this band I would have them playing this kind of thing all the time.
Overall, this is CD OK but I am not a massive fan of Hot Water Music post No Division, and I have a feeling that your stance on that issue will determine whether you enjoy this CD or not. The music rocks, is poppy and has plenty of beef but it also has little niggles that stop me from really being able to enjoy it properly. Palpitations however is a damn fine tune, and you should check this one out at least.