This is a London based five piece band who create up-beat and poppy rock n roll. NME seem to have taken them under their wing and the band are causing a buzz at the moment. I am not sure if this is a good thing but NME are not always wrong.
This is an inoffensive album and certainly some of the tracks will be crowd pleasers at live shows and in clubs. Their lyrics are dubious, but this can be said of many similar bands where it is the sound and not the lyrics that capture the imagination and give the listener a little euphoria. The bass and drums are the heart and soul of this band, and listening to them reminds me of Molly Ringwold dancing in The Breakfast Club. There is an overtone of electronica which fits in well with the overall sound of this band.
Don’t delve into this bands lyrics too much as they are likely to frustrate. However, unlike many albums where songs melt from one to another to the extent you don’t realise the song has changed, these twelve songs all have a sound of their own without sounding like a mish-mash of competing styles.
The band have some famous admirers from the Kaiser Chief’s Ricky to The Queens Of Noize. They toured with The Prodigy and impressed so much they were invited back to perform with the band on a number of other occasions. They boast that they are the only support act to never be bottled off stage. Whilst this may seem like an odd boast, it is quite some feat. They have also toured with Bloc Party and The Rakes and they fit in well with these bands.
Having reviewed some pretty bland albums recently, this one at least made me smile and I wasn’t left wanting the album to be over so that I could put on something more interesting. I admit though, the band’s name did not make me want to listen to this album as it conjured up a very different image of what this band would be like than the music I actually heard. This is a good thing. The band have been described as sounding like Kasabian and this is not far from the truth.
The sound of the album goes from the anthemic
Side By Side to the Buzzcock-esque
She Takes Me Out, a 2 minute punk-rock song. Information has some lilting “ooh-oohs” that can’t help but make a listener want to join in and these “ooh-oohs” continue into
Danger To Myself.
This is a band that combines big guitar riffs, electronic harmonies, pumping beats and dubious lyrics. This could be a winning combination. Certainly the signs are there for this band to make it in a dog-eat-dog industry. They have enough ability to create catchy songs to be enjoyed by the masses without being sell outs to themselves. Is this album a link between dance floor and mosh pit? Well, it certainly feels like that at times. It is upbeat, enjoyable and if they are supporting a band you are seeing, they are certainly worth getting to a venue early for.
Tracks from Make It Ride can be heard on the band’s MySpace site
www.myspace.com/vaticandc and their own site
www.vaticandc.com
The album is out now.
