Tom: “New band, new release”, writes Roland from – oh! Roland from The Approval. The current Mr England, no less, and one half of the people behind this track. “Wondered what you think of us?”
Well, with a friendly intro like that, it’d be wrong to turn him down. So. Big enough for proper production, yet small enough to be doing their own publicity and emailing penny-ante music blogs like ours. What’s this like?
Tom: Bloody hell that’s good.
Tim: Ooh, it is and all, isn’t it?
Tom: It’s strange: the vocals are almost too honest and unprocessed to count as a proper modern pop voice.
Tim: Yeah, but once the first chorus has kicked in, it’s become properly top-notch pop music.
Tom: It’s a little bit all-over-the-place – the double-handclaps, ‘mm-hm’ bits, and switching synths and instruments do distract a bit from the actual track. (If you’re not making a novelty record, ideally the listener should never get distracted from the whole song by one individual bit of it.)
Tim: Yes, teacher.
Tom: But those are minor complaints: that chorus is great, and more than enough to make up for anything else.
Tim: Absolutely. I won’t deny a tiny part (alright, 40 per cent) of me was hoping for a key change, but it works fine without one. Great stuff.
Tom: Three minutes is pretty much the perfect length for this, and – well, the whole EP is free for download. Yes. What more can I say? I like it, Roland. This is proper pop.