Labels: Goddamn Records
Review by: Andy Malcolm
About 10 years ago or so, there were loads of crappy European bands ripping off Mineral and Texas is the Reason and the Get Up Kids. Bands like Only If You Call Me Jonathan, Reno Kid, and Leiah. These were some bad bands, so bad that they sounded like rejects from the emo diaries series. This record looks like something that would have been released by one of those bands. The European indie / emo aesthetic has always been one that looks like a failed attempt at the Yankee indie / emo aesthetic, and this record unfortunately looks exactly like that, I am not a fan of the artwork. However, what I am a fan of is Rika. They do 3, long, meandering songs that couldn’t rip off End Serenading era Mineral and Gloria Record and Christie Front Drive more if they tried. And I don’t throw the CFD comparison thing around liberally as you may be aware if you have been reading this bloody website for over a decade. Rika are a whirligig of beautiful, twinkling guitars, mumbled, soft vocals and soaring, expectant sounds. These songs are, in a word, stunning. If you are at all thrilled by previously mentioned bands of such an ilk, then you should get this record just for Rika. I wasn’t much taken with their pedestrian previous CD but this stuff really ups things to another level. Autumn glory, this is a perfect side of vinyl, other than the very occasional part where they get the boring post rock guitar FX out. Rika – forget this, CFD and Mineral never played post rock, you don’t need to do that either. It’ll be for the best.
Everton, sadly, are more Duncan Ferguson to Rika’s Kenny Dalglish. They are emo rockers with rather odd vocals. Again there is a bit of Mineral influence, but this is more standard, Euro styled indie/emo that I would expect from one of those late 90s bands. Generic, Deep Elm styled emotional rock music. It is palatable and reasonably enjoyable, but the chunky, bassy production and echoey drums reek of cheese. It has all the touches you may expect, nice twinkly bits, hefty choruses and shirt tugging parts – all post Texas is the Reason hardcore chug and whatnot. By the book in many ways, but not a book that I tend to thumb through that often these days. It feels dated and lacking.
Regardless of Everton, this record is made essential for the softy lovers of pretty emo rock by the presence of those 3 towering Rika efforts. Acquire.