aaamusic | On 05, Jun 2011

Well, isn’t this a conundrum. What I have here is easily one of the most likable records of the year, full of energy, melody and genuine fun, a combination which is deceptively hard to get right without sounding either false or deeply annoying, and yet… there is something missing here, and though it truly kills me to say it, it’s great songs. The Seattle six piece are adept at what they do, they storm through every track of their third full length record with panache, feel and tenacity, just by listening to it you can tell that they are a truly incendiary live act, but the songs just aren’t memorable enough to last once the closing title track has hurtled by. I honestly feel like a total wanker typing this because this band have got so much right, so much more than most established bands at the moment, they just fall at the last, most important hurdle.

The melting pot of influences sounds awesome on paper, Descendents-esque geek rock thrashers tempered with Motown backing vocals and the gurning, unmistakable voice of Steve E. Nix (unlikely to be his real name but I hope to Christ it is) should equate to something special but every single song sounds not so much similar as pretty much identical, save for the title tracks deployment of Jerry Lee Lewis piano giving it a neat little rockabilly twist that doesn’t quite elevate it from the songs that precede it.

There’s even genuine intelligence in the tracks, it would be too easy to make this record about nothing in particular but She Liked Helter Skelter concerns itself with the Manson murders while, fittingly enough, sounding like The New York Dolls molesting The Beatles, and Misdirected is a protest song against young men joining the army and there should be so many more protest songs that sound like this as apposed to some sixth form anarchist rewriting Blowin’ in the Wind for the 18 trillionth time, but there just isn’t anything special to be seen here.

Again, this is a crying shame, and I’m sure they’ll sound like the greatest band since sliced bread live but on record this is a record bursting with everything except an identity of it’s own, and it kneecaps a band that could have had real potential.

Author: Will Howard