Preconceived Notions: I have never heard of this band before, from their name I am going to guess they are some sort of Pop rock/punk group? Let’s find out….
After Listening: I wasn’t too far off…..Britishy punky…alterny…but…I don’t hate it. Sure there are parts of it I hate-but some of it reminds of groups like the Cribs-which I am fond of…at its best the album is catchy with good harmonies and vocals that are slightly better than average. Actually on “Demons” the beginning sounds a lot like a “Who” vocal melody to me, but maybe I’m just racist against Britts and lump them all together. Anyway, the point is I always look to see if the band can separate itself from the hundreds of others doing similar things. They do a slightly better than average job in that arena particularly with the use of the little background touches that can separate a song from going straight from A-B in predictably.
Favorite Tracks: “Herman Loves Pauline” – I like a lot of the background parts of this one, the backing vocals, the weird sythn’ed out screeches etc… “Play it Cool” – the keyboard riffs and clean guitar parts are pretty solid, the beat is simple enough not to F*ck that up.
Least Favorite Tracks: “She’s got spies” = the heroin style opening grates on my nerves but was at least a little interesting the switch to the half baked poppy punk riff was much less interesting. “Chupacabras” = sounds like something a bad sitcom might play during a sped up montage of the main characters at the mall shopping – hilarity ensues. “Mountain People” chorus half sounds like the Rolling Stones “Wild Horses” and that song sucked too.
Overall: 3.3 I would say that at least the catchy parts of this thing are worth a look.
40 has had training enough in classical theory to know roughly what he's talking about. As for talent, he considers himself a crappy guitar player. He has a BA in Audio & Sound Recording BA, so not only does music creation intrigue him, but also music production. He believes that expression takes all forms, and it has to be remembered that music is an art form and is ultimately about connection, communication, experimentation, creativity, freedom, emotion, and 100’s of other things.