This Home EP
Dirty Sick Records
Rating: 4/5
I'll start with a quick confession; anybody who knows fucking anything about this band already will call me up on the fact that this EP is a demo EP, it doesn't have a name, and it certainly isn't called This Home, but sue me. I format reviews in a certain way and given that this far superior to a fucken demo I wasn't going to go err, "demo EP" and make it sound all shit and lower your expectations before you'd even heard a single note. Jesus. Anyway, the best track, the most obvious single and the video are all the opener, 'This Home', hence my not-entirely-unreasonable arbitrary naming of this three-track collection.
Onto the songs then. 'This Home', above all reminds one of what might happen if Muse (or perhaps Jonny Greenwood in 1997) decided to play guest guitar on a Biffy Clyro record. In terms of what Biffy I'm referencing, I'm not really sure; the guitars are pretty angular, but I'd be a fucking dirty rat liar if I said this didn't have a certain pop sensibility about it. Those melodies be damn catchy, fool.
Anyway, track two, 'Lights On, Lights Off', is a more straightforward alt-rock affair. The band use their two guitars well, building an appropriate atmosphere and adding layers below the vocals, which though strong in their own right, might not be everyone's cup of tea. Breaking down into a couple of slower sections, the band definitely prove themselves up to a festival stage moment or two, and though again the contrarian in me goes 'AGARRAARRRRRGGHHH' at anything that might conceivably be played on the radio, I can't deny that it's great stuff. That, and the contrarian me is a total dick. Seriously.
The weakest of the three is closer 'Everything You Break'; it's the most ballad-y of the set, and I think I've very much planted my flag at the rockier end of Battleships' oeuvre, so that's probably why I'm like "maaarrrgh, turn it back up to 11", but nevermind. I'm (I think) smart enough to spot that for many people this slow burner will be a favourite, and that (whisper now), I'm not always right.
Either way, this band have been playing together for something fucking tiny like ten months, and yet this is what they step up to the plate with first time at bat. JEEEESUS. This band are fucking rad, and (shakes fist) they'd better get radder!
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