Opening
up with a track that sounds like James Bond has arrived in town and
is in no mood to take any prisoners is a bold move, but 'Affluenza'
carries it well while proclaiming loudly and proudly that the band
are here.
With
their debut 'Starfishing' serving as an impressive introduction they
clearly didn't consider for a second resting on their laurels, and
instead used the intervening time to write and road test the material
that we now have sprawling out and taking up room across the breadth
of this album.
It's
difficult to pigeon hole the band, and I have a sneaky suspicion that
they they like it that way.
One
minute they are firmly pounding out a beat in the power pop trenches
and then they comfortably ease the listener towards something that is
harder edged, a bit dirtier and altogether more meaty.
The only
problem is, in the nicest possible way, that as soon as you start to
get to grips with that they are off out of the starting gate again
and looking to embrace the angular guitar of the post punk sound
while adding some harmonies over it all that have no right to be
there, but works magnificently anyway.
The whole
experience is akin to shadow boxing.
Every
single time you may think you have the target in arms reach they have
ducked away only to pop up on the periphery and come at you from
another angle.
It's
wonderfully discombobulating.
A bit of
jazz here and a bit of reggae there, and all still sheltering within
the broad church of punk rock.
I
considered that something special was on the cards, but I wasn't
expecting the next step from Starfishing to be such a large one.
One small
step for mankind, one giant leap for the Media Whores
Twenty Stone Blatt Records
How sweet. Love you XXX
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