This is another band in the latest craze of singing with a very strong home counties accent. It is not a trend I am enjoying as it often sounds as though the singer is making far too much of an effort to sing in an accent rather than worrying about the lyrics and overall sound of the track. In fact, it is often simply annoying and it is something that makes me reach for the stop button or turn over to another music channel quicker than anything else. Yes, even quicker than turning over from a Will Young track.
I blame Damon Albarn for this trend. Whilst his cheeky chappy musical style for tracks such as Country House may have fit perfectly for those songs and those lyrics, Albarn wannabes seem to want to use this lyrical style and sound on every track and so misunderstand what Albarn was doing in the first place. I can put up with an odd Blur track where Albarn is moments away from singing about “apples and pears” but the increasing use of London and Greater London accents in music is just a highly irritating trend.
I listened to this 2 track single a few times for this review and couldn’t get past the fact that it just sounds as though singer, Gavin, is trying to make his accent as prominent as possible which detracts from the overall sound of the band. It left me concentrating on that rather than the track and, as such, it just doesn’t work.
I imagine that the band have a reasonable following as the music is inoffensive and they have a typically southern counties sound. They are a band who, if you turned up to a pub not realising that there was a band on and they were playing you could sit and listen to with a beer or two. However you probably will have forgotten what they sound like by the next day as they don’t have a distinctive sound that sets them out from the crowd.
Inoffensive is fine, but it does tend to mean you blend in with so many other things. It just feels like I have heard
Graphs, Maps & Trees, and
Calculate many many times over. Assembly Now are unsigned but have been heard on Hollyoaks (surely a sign of being on the verge of getting a deal and “making it”) and have toured this year with The Wombats. They are getting some pretty good reviews but the feeling of this being a band about to break the big time has passed me by. I just don’t see it.
It is difficult to dislike this single as it is so inoffensive. The band have recently worked with Razorlight studio man, John Fortis, and it is clear that they have a lot in common with Johnny Burrell and his merry band. If inoffensive and mediocre is your thing then Assembly Now are right up your street. However, if you are looking for something that is that little more interesting then this is a band that will frustrate you. You want the band to give more, they simply don’t.
The single,
Graphs, Maps & Trees can be heard on the band’s Myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/assemblynow and is out on August 6th.
