 About time! The darlings of the Birmingham scene kick out their first single proper, cut from their upcoming album, "Beat Dyslexia", a whole two summers after they announced their intentions with the mini-album "Soda Lake". Their intentions seemed to be to make a dense, melody-infused racket and shout over the top for three minutes max, in way that's much better than it sounds on paper. What set them apart from every other gang of kids with fuzzy amps and fuzzy hair with the same idea was the way they blissfully switched from breezy, frenetic choruses to breezy, summery verses and back again, all in the blink of an eye and without sounding remotely off kilter at any point. Check out that records 'Joanne' and 'Shrimpboat' from PSB#5 to see what I mean.
'Children Know The Score' doesn't alter the template, but drops even juice into the turbocharger and more sugar into those sweet, sweet melodies and falsetto harmonies than on previous outings, which kinda juxtaposes in a strange way with lyrics about 'organised fights'. It's bright and heavy all at once, it makes you want to jump around like a kid at a Bob the Builder gig, and it's over almost before it's begun,its two minutes fifteen seconds seeming like, well, fifteen seconds.
The flipside to the single, 'Starvation Cove' isn't the jaw-dropping stunner that its companion is, but it's still a damn ace song. The catchiest riff this side of any Jetplane Landing single you choose goes head to head with the almost shouted verse and chaotic guitar sound that is the trademark of this band, before they switch back to Beach Boys mode for the other half of the track.
But this band are no one trick pony. The way they allow their songs to descend into near-anarchy before dragging them kicking and screaming into Pepsi Chart territory, the way they can flick a switch and go from crushing to angelic, the raucous lyrics and the walls of guitar bode so, so well for the upcoming album, and if this double A is anything to go by, we should be getting very excited right about now.
Ben Johnston |
| Coding: Darren Burrows