Rating: 7/10
Label: Kiln/PerscriptionPR 2012
Review by: Urban "Wally" Wallstrom
Gee, great artcover... not! However, Twelve Feet Clay are an interesting four-piece rock band out of Cambridge, U.K. Devoted to the cult following of hometown hero: Syd Barrett (Pink Floyd), the lads are clearly out on a mission to conquer the world with slightly depressive rock. The opening two tracks, "Cornfed" and "Tribal Girls", has taken elements from all the U.K.'s previous trends including (early) U2, The Cult, The Verve, to create their own sound. It's epic, moody, rock arrangements, with lots of light and shade.
In fact, add merely a hint of the radio friendly rock of Nickelback and you're pretty close to home. "Still Life", starts off promising enough, oozing with both angst and melancholy, the driving bass/guitar takes the melody way beyond your average composition, transforming it into mellow and excellent arena rock of twenty twelve. Next up, "Sarajevo Bombs", you can obviously tell by its title that it's going to be a rather laidback and sad little melody.
The band with the Jeffs brothers upfront clearly owe quite a lot to the traditional U.K. melancholy sound of the past and this album will most certainly appeal to those with a tender heart and/or broken home. "Sour Rum" is quite bitter to be frank and not easy to digest on empty stomach (I believe the correct term would be swallow). Going through the eleven tracks on display only to find out that it's all v-e-r-y mid-tempo. Not always exciting and in my humble opinion, 'Totem Bells', could only have benifited from a change of pace every now and then. Especially since they've now basically arrangend all their melodies in a similar song structure and formula. The lack of an outside voice is quite obvious? Nontheless, a fine debut by the sons of Syd.
www.twelveclayfeet.com
No comments:
Post a Comment