Guildford quartet THE TONIKS were formed barely twelve months back, but have clearly buckled down and got on with honing their craft. Their début EP, 'This Summer' is a fully-formed, professional affair and its' bright, melodic edge shows exactly why patronage from DJS like Alex Zane has already been forthcoming.
Mr. Zane is only one of the right names The Toniks can boast of in their contact book. Production comes courtesy of Graham Dominy (Razorlight) and the four songs here were recorded at London's Livingstone Studios – birthplace of significant chunks of The Smiths' influential 'The Queen Is Dead' album.
So, with all the 't's crossed and 'i's dotted, they proceed to choose the worst track as the EP'S lead. 'Wonderful Then' (“we have built this place, we have made it great”) has a nice line in positivity, but it's the sort of slowburning, Coldplay/ Snow Patrol/ delete as applicable exercise in angst-y, white boy pop that this writer has long since lost patience with. There's nothing wrong with the execution, but it won't help 'em stand out from the pack.
Thankfully, it gets better from there. 'This Summer' is another radio-botherer in its' own right, but its' sunny and infectious feel (“there's nothing that gets me down”) is a much better bet as the summer weather improves. Arguably even better is 'Simple Things', which may be chock full of platitudes (“I stare at the sun/ it's the simple things that keep you going”) but it delivers them in a genuine, heartfelt way and with a little of Crowded House's bittersweet flavour detectable in the aftertaste, it again wins through well enough.
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They seal the deal with the closing 'So Much Better' where there's a little swagger in their collective walk and the song reminds your reviewer of a younger Squeeze more than anything else. Hell, there's even a touch of Glenn Tilbrook in Mark Taylor's voice, which is surely not a bad thing.
The Toniks, then, may be just the ticket as the days lengthen and we can discard our sweaters at last. The flavours they peddle may be as traditional as the Vanilla 99 depicted on the sleeve, but that doesn't mean they won't slide down easily. Stop 'em and buy one when they're in your neighbourhood.
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