Australian quintet THE MORNING AFTER GIRLS’ reputation certainly precedes as they have been scoring all the right industry Brownie points via media-piqueing performances at Texas’s SXSW and New York City’s CMJ, not to mention sharing stages with the likes of The Dandy Warhols, Warlocks and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.
However, the buzz seems justified in the main as this three-track single/ album taster impresses from the off. Lead track “Run For Our Lives” comes on string with warped’n’groovy stereo-panning riffs, celebratory tambourines rattling aloft and some serious swagger in its’ loins. Hints of psychedelia waft around, but mostly MAG erect a confident wall of sound akin to a less mercurial My Bloody Valentine with their eyes on the chart prize.
If that sounds like I’m damning them with faint praise, well it’s not meant to, because there’s clearly more where that comes from if second tune “Straight Through You” is anything to judge by. Funnily enough, this one sounds like a filled-out version of the Bunnymen’s early sound, topped off with stoned and immaculate vocals. Yes, overall it’s an amalgam of loads of stuff that’s been done to death (down to the blaring blues harp!) but it’s so enthusiastic, cool and hipswingin’ that it’s impossible not to succumb. Actually, all things considered, this would probably have made an equally good A-side.
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They finish up with an acoustic-based radio session version of “Lazy Greys” which – despite the lowering of wattage – adopts a credibly laid-back, strung-out and opiated vibe a la the Velvets/ MBV with lots of pretty vibrato guitar. It’s stylised, sure, but also beautifully executed and suggests that while The Morning After Girls’ sonic seduction may be blatant, it’s also extremely tempting. And you will remember their name the next day. I swear.
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