Labels: Count Your Lucky Stars – Hobbledehoy
Review by: MH
This split was never likely to fail. Two of the best twinkly and meandering indiemo (hate that word!) bands around on the same record. A picture of a sad looking dog on the cover. Had to be winner. Arrows’ track “All Passwords are Brisbane” is the right level of miserable for me. It plods along nicely with some jangly build-ups. After the singer has explained how rubbish everything has become, he tells you “I’ve got other plans” and they crank up the guitars before a more twinkly ending. It’s a belter – no mistake. I will be moving to Brisbane next summer so am hopeful they will still be together when I get there so I can one day get to see them play live. Selfish I know. Empire! Empire! (I was a lonely estate) take side two and they offer up two tracks. Apparently Keith played everything on both tracks. “Turbo Stasis” is a pondering, slow track without drums – the lyrics reminisce and ponder about days gone long gone. In fact, both songs on here do – as does the Arrows song. I could pretty much read the lyrics by both bands all day. The second Empire! Empire! song dwindles and meanders along and is quite lovely – it then ends abruptly. I like split records but when the content is as good as these it just makes me to want to hear a longer release. However, like I said, it’s winner – never in any doubt.