Labels: Sturdy Records
Review by: MH
I thought I’d be clever and review this band from the Bandcamp files while waiting for the CD to arrive in the post. I reviewed the three tracks and put a review together. More fool me. As I was about to send this in my lack of attention to detail struck me as I realized I was meant to be reviewing an album called “ The Land” rather than an EP called “Cross Country”. What a disappointment “” all that work for nothing. Now I had a whole album to get through and write a review about. Good job that at least one of the tracks on the EP appears here so I was ever so slightly ahead of the game.Â
This band come from Leeds and have taken their name from the Murakami novel, “The Wind-up Bird Chronicle”. They appear to have been around since 2003 but I hadn’t heard of them myself until now. That’s despite them having recorded about a million songs already if the lyrics section of their website is anything to go by. They play a style of post punk, taking strong influence from older bands like The Fall and Gang Of Four, and have a very English sound. This is owing partly to the vocals – the singer has quite a strong accent and is not much past talking the lyrics on the album. The only real singing comes courtesy of the backing vocals. The lyrics also reference many elements of life here like independent shops closing down, dropping your bag in dog dirt and pub fights. The storytelling style of the lyrics keep things interesting. “Cross Country”, the lead track from the EP, is one of the standout tracks with its angular riffs and boisterous tale of cross country running at school. The angular riffing is common to many of the songs here. The harmonies in the backing vocals on “Escape From New Yorkshire” work well and some of the guitar work on the slower, talky songs is really nice. It’s a good album and they score bonus points for sounding quite unlike anything else I have heard lately.