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Torturing Our Cats - Anna C gets down to some trick and treating SILVERTOP- Office girlfriend Apparently the most versatile guitar outfit on the London circuit, here are three blokes from the big smoke and one from Italy who champion straightforward indie rock and roll like it's never been done before. Except it has, and, though inoffensive enough, the title track from this self-produced single is obviously out to appeal to those who don't miss an edition of the NME, swaggering and sneering its way through like Liam Gallagher at a Humanzi gig, posing at each spiky riff but not really going anywhere, in dire need of dynamics and melody, building up the listener's hopes but inexplicably falling short each time. Each accompanying track having a different style, I am unsure if this is the sign of a good artist or a case of confused identity; regardless, the whining dirge at the end appropriately named "Half Life" needs to be disposed of right away. The best song on this release is certainly B-side "Fallin'", being far more catchy and attention grabbing. This band are only lucky this reviewer only got that far. LUXEMBOURG- Front I have a friend from Luxembourg. You will often hear her telling anyone who will listen how wonderful it is one minute, before declaring it the most boring place on Earth the next. Which makes a fair analogy to this album from "the best underground pop band in London". Admittedly not without its good bits, mainly the single releases "Sick of DIY" and "We only stayed together for the kids", and though musically pretty exciting- a frenzied ball of guitar and synth livening up proceedings- the bulk of material formed a cheap imitation of mid-90's Britpop with a camp cabaret twist, a soprano mock intelligence best left to Jarvis Cocker or Brett Anderson who actually got the head-tossing down to a tee the first time round.
A rather droll concept album that belongs back in the day, "Front"
is theatrical but not original, which makes it a loser, in my opinion.
The other person in the room with me whilst listening became homicidal
by track five. He started talking about torturing our cats by track
two. Not a good sign. NIKOLA SARCEVIC- Roll roll and flee Mr Sarcevic likes The Beatles as much as perhaps Noel Gallagher. Which is probably why he sounds quite like him on most of this album. Quite a surprise change of direction from the front man of Sweden's biggest punk band, Millencolin, "Roll roll and flee" is a musical collection that the word meaningful was invented for, being all about emotions, relationships and whatnot. Whether that is a good thing or not is by the by, because I was still rather unconvinced by the whole thing, just for a change. Lots of strumming and melodic indie-pop pleasantries sit a little uncomfortably beside a vocal best reserved for Bad Religion fans and it all starts to sound a bit repetitive after a while, so much so that, by the time I reached track three, I was unaware that the song had changed. This means that there are no standout tracks, per se, but if you are a fan of uncomplicated, mostly sunny, song writing with the odd horn section, and you fancy something to bop around to, then this one's for you.
www.myspace.com/nikolasarcevic Anna C. |
