aaamusic | On 12, Nov 2012

Well, at the very least, this is interesting. In their debut single, Fight The Dice seem to have collected all the parts of the past decade of homespun pop-rock that inspire an extreme reaction and piled them into the same song. Of course, this leads to a single that will heartily divide opinion everywhere it’s played, with one side falling for its swooning melodies and periodically inspired instrumentation, and the other infuriated by singer Ben Jackson’s chronic, deeply annoying over sincerity and melodramatic lyrics that treats the fact that teenagers do stupid things as a revelation comparable to the discovery of radium. So this is a deeply uneven single all things considered, when it’s good, like in its skyscraping chorus, it’s very good. When it’s bad, like it’s toe curling outro, it’s nigh on unlistenable. I’d say that it’s always a good thing for bands to be memorable over outright good or bad, but this mix of extremities just leaves me completely unmoved. If the only thing album that you can listen to the whole way through is something by You Me At Six, then I might have just handed you your new favourite band on a platter, but for everyone else, this is best avoided.

[rating=20

Will Howard