Labels: Black Numbers – Disconnect Disconnect
Review by: MH
Banquets are a New Jersey band that I somehow inherited some limited edition vinyl from via a friend who had a spare copy last year. I might even have two Banquets records which I acquired in this way. He loves to buy up every version and colour of LPs and then forget whether he has said record or not. Aside from a couple of cursory listens, I haven’t yet spent the time on giving them a proper go. However, I have given this new one a good few listens so am working my way backwards from this one. They are pretty good and plough a melodic punk sound that is influenced by bands like The Loved Ones and Samiam – upbeat, melodic punk with clean, sung vocals and not unhealthy amounts of energy. Current comparable bands would be Luther and Ma Jolie. This kicks off with, for me, by far the best song called “Little Shallow” – the chorus on this one is huge. They may have set the bar too high with that opener though as the rest of the album is pretty good but doesn’t hit the heights of that song again although having said that I don’t find myself skipping any of the tracks and the anthemic last song is another fine track.