We've all heard of wearing hearts on sleeves, but surely wearing an x-ray of your brain on your record sleeve is taking commitment a shade too far? Apparently not so if you're CONWAY STORY'S vocalist Nik Owens, whose inner cranium (in x-ray form from an MRI scan) is depicted on the sleeve of the band's fourth single "Photogenic."
But then, TCS's previous singles, such as "Ghostwriter" and the excellent, testosterone-questioning "Lunatic Perfume" attested to a band with intelligence as well as firepower, plus an intriguing ability to root into the more shadowy corners of the human psyche. So I guess delving inside your own inner recesses is the logical next step.
Besides, in purely visceral, sonic terms "Photogenic" is a must. Flying off the blocks with a heatseeking, metal-bothering riff, giving way to something more immediate and chromatic at the verse and revving up the Conways' patented, Pixies-style intensity come the chorus, it's soon cleaving its' way through your synapses itself. The big rock production comes in style courtesy of Chris Sheldon (Foo Fighters, Therapy?, Oceansize and a shedload more) and this is the sound of a tenser, terser and more direct Conway Story than ever before.
|
Flipside "October", meanwhile, reminds us that TCS are still sensitive souls at heart, offering up something acoustic, close-miked and truly beaten'n'blue. Regret and (ulp) oblivion are seemingly never far away (it's especially affecting the way Nik sings "Your desperate measures measure me, the fantasy's bitter") and this one again reminds you this bunch also do 'restraint' rather well too.
The Conway Story have been doing the important spadework this year with a string of going-on-immaculate singles. Currently, they are sleepers waiting to shine during 2006. I wouldn't bet against them being unearthed for full-scale discovery when that debut album rolls around.
|
