Wouldn’t it be awful if McFly turned out to be the most inspirational band of the 21st century? Their sound has been creeping into indie pop for a while now (admittedly they rippedit off first, but really McFly should have been the end of the matter), and this Hold Fire release really suffers from the comparison.
‘Power Cuts’ is just a little too shiny to be referred to as emo, but there are hints of self-pity in there. It’s quite aggressive deep down, but the whole thing is too diluted to make you feel anything. It’s one of those songs that can only be defended by saying ‘at least they play their own instruments.’
‘You’ll Never Know’ is worse. At least the mild distortion on the vocals of the lead track were enough to confuse you into thinking you might hear something of interest, if only for a few seconds. On this, there isn’t even that to cling onto. “You’re moving much too fast/I’m moving too slow” is a chorus straight from the Pete Waterman production line. Writing pop music is easy, it’s writing good pop music that is the challenge.
|
The fatal flaw to Hold Fire’s music is the lyrics, and the delivery of said lyrics. Something could be made out of the riffs – although it’s all very conventional and rigid, like so much else out there. It’s fast-paced Snow Patrol, which is quite bad but not totally unforgivable. But the lyrics are Busted poor, and the vocals are boy-band weak. It’s all about as edgy as a Smash Hits annual.
There are loads of bands I listened to ten years ago that I’m quite ashamed of now. I own a lot of Dodgy’s albums for a start. I wonder if musicians feel that about their teenage bands some of the time.
|
