Our
national football teams may be crap but one thing we Brits are world-beaters at
is fey indie pop. The Smiths were the first and the greatest but many have
followed, taking their template of jangling guitars and theatrical vocals and
adding their own twist.
London's
Evans the Death have added in a dash of grunge. The guitars still jangle but
there’s a dirty fuzz that coats these polished indie tunes like a layer of
dust. They’ve added a little more crunch to the guitars and a dirty sludge to
the bass but the influences are unmistakable and they’ve created a new and
unique hybrid. They are the bastard child of The Smiths and Dinosaur Jr.
It's on the
harder tracks such as opener 'Bo Diddley' are where the skuzzy Dinosaur Jr.
influence is most keenly heard. Elsewhere such as on the more melodic Telling Lies there are catchy melodic hook that would have done Brit poppers like Sleeper or
Echobelly proud.
Dan
Moss's barbed lyrics are delivered with verve by singer Katherine Whitaker
whose echoey female vocals are just the right side of kooky. There's a touch of
Florence Welch about her delivery but this being a 'band' not a 'one woman goth
stage-play' all screechy theatrics are kept well under wraps and the vocals fit
perfectly within overall sound. In particular on 'Letter of Complaint' where
her vocals are given more room to breath and are quite beautiful.
On
first listen Evans The Death seemed quite unremarkable but being a very short
album (it’s only 31 minutes long and only two songs come in over 3mins) it
would be rude not to listen to on loop. It’s with repeated listens that Evans
the Death charm really begins to take hold. Their pop sensibilities and sweet
guitar hooks really fizz and become quite addictive, especially the faster
tracks like the aforementioned 'Telling Lies', 'Threads' and 'I’m So Unclean'.
No comments:
Post a Comment