Labels: Count Your Lucky Stars
Review by: MH
Count Your Lucky Stars are doing good things in bringing these two bands together on one record. Annabel have been quiet since “Youth In Youth” came out at the end of 2012. Their two song titles have a common theme going on (“Always” and “Forever”). “Always” is a mid-paced indie rocker with charged-up drums. It’s a good song with something of a distorted and energetic Built To Spill-feel about it. “Forever” is a punked-up version of “Our Days Were Numbered” from their LP. It’s a little chaotic and messy. I prefer the original and would certainly have preferred to hear a new song but this version is pretty good. I was absolutely smitten by Dowsing’s first album and still am. With last year’s follow-up I wasn’t quite so excited. Perhaps I was feeling a little jaded as I do like it and listened to it plenty of times but I think “It’s Still Pretty Terrible” was the better record. I’m kind of splitting hairs here as they remain one of my favourite bands. Dowsing’s first track here is one of their faster indie rock tracks. It’s short and effective and full of their usual downbeat lyrics. It’s a good song even by standards. Then comes “World’s Finest Chocolate” and it’s utterly brilliant. It’s driven and gutsy and the vocals are a little more ragged – this one harks back to the sound on that first 7inch they did. Again the lyrics are down on themselves (“When you’re as awful as me locked in a state of low self esteem, you’d build a wall to hide a good thing and tear it down”). The production on these two songs is bang on and that second track is an absolute winner.