This may merely be self-preservation, but a large part of me thinks it's too early for a revival of Britpop and the days when teenage boys were getting their rocks off to the multitude of slightly awkward indie pin-ups fronting Sleeper, Elastica, Echobelly, Lush et al. Monocle Rose appear to be approaching things from this very angle, and it feels much more like imitation than influence.Â
'Alley Cat' has a Britpop melody mixed with fairly straightforward garage-rock-pop. The vocals are Sleeper sassy with a small element of femme-fatale, but lacking the charisma of the mid-90s darlings like Louise Wener and Justine Frischmann. The most striking element of this is the guitar parts, which wail admirably in and amongst what is otherwise business as usual indie rock. On the whole, it's utterly unremarkable, but completely harmless at the same time.
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