Publicity – every band needs it or so it seems. Dubious musical comparisons letting potential listeners know what to expect from a piece of plastic is a common marketing ploy of many a label. However sometimes these descriptions can be highly suspect indeed – the press release accompanying East Londoners THE COMPOSERS’ new single claims that lead song here - A WAY OF BEING FREE, has ‘the feel of a latter day Django Rheinhardt (sic.) jamming with Pulp on speed’.
Thankfully this platter is nowhere near as bad as that. The main tune is a jaunty hopalong number featuring an appealing horn section that shows some similarities with the nu-sike pop sound of the likes of The Coral and The Zutons. And it works a treat. On the second track EVACUATE LONDON TOWN the influence of Pulp is indeed present and perhaps a little bit too strongly – after listening to it I was off humming ‘Sorted For E’s and Wizz’ for the rest of the afternoon. That isn’t such a bad thing I guess. Its not that the song is a blatant rip-off but stylistically it is of a type.
The final song THE VEIN JANE BLUES is a downbeat examination of the dangers of drug abuse slightly reminiscent of Berlin-era Lou Reed (God, that’s one I haven’t heard in a while. Must dig it out). Its got quite a good melody and overall feel but unfortunately the lyrics leave the song down – lots of banal rhyming couplets in the manner of ‘moon, june, soon’. These make it difficult to take the song seriously which is a shame.
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Still, this is a nice enough single by and large. The Composers, if they can show a little bit more attention to detail and not accept the obvious could go on to produce some fine work I feel. At this point in time they are not the rock n’ roll equivalents of Mozart by any means but they most certainly are not Mantovani either. On a level of Beethoven symphonies from 1 to 9 I’d say its around the 2nd mark. Not brilliant but very promising.
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