Labels: self released
Review by: Matthew Green
When I first heard Only Thieves “Heartless Romantics” I immediately thought the vocalist sounded like bloke from The Killers, but upon further listening the music turned out not to be a bunch of 30-somethings making uninteresting radio rock but some happy sounding dudes making noises akin to Buffalo Tom with lead guitars floating over the top like J Mascis if he turned down his distortion a little bit.
First track “All Sad Young Men” bounces up and down without any reserve for a fun dancy little track. The album continues in this veign with super melodious jams throughout with super catchy riffs and bouncy drums to boot, second track discoveries has a posi sound to it with a guitar line that is still stuck in my head.
“Flood Lights” once again begins sounding like The Killers though, but then after 20 seconds it explodes into another gainy high-tempo song once again reminding me of Buffalo Tom. The songs continue in the same indie rock vein for the entire album, and although the tracks aren’t as varied in style and tempo apart from the odd acoustic ballad which end up sounding way too “popular alternative rock” for my liking (a problem that many bands of this ilk suffer) it’s still a good CD for people into this sort of stuff, myself included, and if you’re looking for some bouncy inoffensive college rock then this might be your bag.