Little Big League - My Very Own You

Video released August 21st 2013

Sometimes you’ll hear a track that sounds so summery you can guarantee that it basically bleeds sunshine; the kind of song that takes you back to childhoods spent riding bikes for hours, achieving nothing and wasting a whole lot of time. Before you wonder if I'm having some kind of break down let me explain; this song brought me back there, in part due to the video which features a lot of skateboarding but also due to the actual sound of the track.

With one of the most delicate and hauntingly beautiful voices I've heard in a very long time, courtesy of lead singer and guitarist Michelle Zauner ‘Little Big League’ release their debut video for ‘My Very Own You’, a track taken from their debut LP ‘These Are Good People’.

Let’s get it underway by saying it’s comparable to a lot of 90’s alternate rock acts, notably The Smashing Pumpkins and Sonic Youth; But while saying that you can also see the influence of both The Velvet Underground and Lou Reed’s solo work, a lot of ways I’d say it’s a spectacular homage to ‘Satellite of Love’.

On to my judgement of the track itself, if you’ve got this far you’ll have already realized I love it with all the comparisons I have made. The graceful escalation from the initial opener of the song to the powerful and almost raucous piece towards the end come so organically you’re left feeling like someone has drove you to the top of the mountain only to abandon you and tell you to find your way back down, in a nice way obviously.

The Philadelphia are going to go far, from this track there’s such a vast collection of influences all brewing that you can tell they've got so much more creativity left to come and it’s a great future mapped out for them should they produce work equal to or above what I've heard here; a truly remarkable track from a band I'm sure will have a bright future ahead. 

Leopards - Have a Heart

Video released July 8th 2013

The UK has an exciting music scene at the moment, there's alternative rock, blues rock, hip hop, rap and punk amongst others, there's a lot of good stuff coming out. Pop punk/pop rock band Leopards are by far one of the best of this recent influx of bands, with a very Paramore sound they will easily discover a fan base, as well as their attractive lead singer Jenna Clare not hurting their chances.

The track I'm reviewing here, 'Have a Heart' is a perfect example of what's to come from this band, great vocals working perfectly with brilliant musicality, the tracks main message is to have a heart and work at things you want. The vocals are powerful and strong, the music is tight and it works together perfectly. This is a great start to what should be a long and successful career, keep it up.

Gnarwolves - Melody has Big Plans

Video released May 22nd 2013

Heavy pop punk is something the British have never been able to do that well, it's always come across slightly teen pop punky and never hit a broad appeal, Gnarwolves so far have avoided this trap and seem to be gaining a huge following through their extensive festival touring schedule over the past couple of years. Their latest YouTube video 'Melody has Big Plans' show's just how good these guys are at what they're doing, it's aggressive, it's edgy, it's energetic and it's clearly a great crowd pleaser. The guys have a great stage presence, I caught their set at Slam Dunk South earlier in the year and was blown away by their Green Day 'Basket Case' cover, as well as their own material which got the whole crowd eating out of the palm of their hand. This band have a great future ahead of them and there's going to be a whole lot more of them seen over the next couple of years.  

Kids In Glass Houses - Drive

Video released June 5th 2013

From my previous review of You Me At Six's most recent effort Reckless you may be surprised to see me actually putting myself through more pop punk, however this is different for many reasons and I will go through these before I start the main body of the review. 

1. I've seen this band live recently at Slam Dunk festival and was actually quite impressed, they had great crowd interaction, a good stage persona and a lot of energy.

2. They're less of a pop punk band now days, they seem to have grown as a band and show a lot more maturity in their song writing.

3. I heard this song playing earlier and actually liked it.

This is their newest track, it's taken from the upcoming album Peace, follow up to 2011's In Gold Blood and it's actually fairly good. The video is minimalist, filmed in black and white with the band members shown as well as a female character the song is wrote about. The song is the classic template, love and angst, perfect for their teenage fans to get to grips with.

I think this song show's how much the band have grown and matured over their ten year history with the song being comparable to Foo Fighters in a lot of ways. While they will never be my go to band you can't argue with a good sounding track from a band that seems to know their core market and how to adapt to other genres while still keeping their individuality.

You Me At Six - Reckless

Released October 22nd 2012

Britain's favourite pop punkers You Me At Six are back with another infectious, heart broken yet still jolly sounding track from their 2011 album Sinners Never Sleep. Not much is done different to other songs in their back catalogue, teen friendly lyrics and cheesy American accents are here in droves as well as the 'we're lads with a heart of gold' video, it even includes them being tattooed and throwing up the horns! Madness I know.

I'll be honest, I've never been a fan of this band, I've never even really listened to them, I hate British pop punk with a passion, I think it was done to the best possible standards during the 90's by bands like Sum 41 and Blink 182, however there's something quite endearing about this song. They know who their market is and they are going to play it to their very best, while I find the lyrics very generic and completely mind numbing I can see that they're not making music to share a message, they're doing it for their young fans to dance around to. This is shown at around 2.30 in where there's a breakdown allowing their fans to sing along, which they do.

While they're not changing the world or giving people a message they are bringing happiness to millions of teenage girls and boys out there trying to prove how different they are to the other people in their class, and this is good, it'll never be my cup of tea but it's not as bad as other pop punk bands I've heard.