‘El Shake’ is the third single to be lifted from the debut album ‘You’re a Long Time Dead, so What’s the Hurry’ from Leeds based MAMA SCUBA (favourably reviewed on these very pages a couple of months ago).
‘El Shake’ itself is an accessible little number, commercial grunge if you will crossed with Britpop sensibilities. The guitar sound in places brings to mind Sleeper of all people. The vocals are sung in falsetto reminiscent of JJ72 (a good thing) but in truth the song never really takes off. It seems to be wound up ready to spring but rather simply fades away.
Better is second track ‘Lazy Belay’. Once again their influences are varied and you can hear JJ72 once more, or a more cheerful Placebo (especially in the line about an ‘aniseed queen’) and even a little of the Polyphonic Spree in the oh so cheerful harmonies. This time the mish mash works much more effectively and the keyboard led section is utterly contagious.
|
Final track ‘Sweet Girl’ has an introduction Mudhoney would be proud of before once more turning on itself into a lighter, more melodic guitar line. The vocals remain an acquired taste but this time the guitars head into heavier territory and are all the better for it. Less focused than ’Lazy Belay’ but once again in my humble opinion better than the lead track.
It’s always good to hear a band who don’t head for the obvious influences or churn out the same song time after time. Mama Scuba would seem to have a spark you don’t hear too often and although I haven’t heard the full album I would wager there’s better on there than this rather weak single.
|
