If Muse hadn't made a career of producing indulgent, overblown bilge and had trimmed things down a bit, they might have come up with 'Not So Loud.' Or maybe they wouldn't, but they might have wished that they had. It's by no means the only worthwhile track on 'Crashing the Party,' a collection of songs that manage to cohere while displaying enough diversity to keep it interesting and a quality of songwriting that makes it rewarding.
Still, The Russians demonstrate a keen ear for melody and a knack for knocking out half-decent pop tunes that embrace elements of psychedelia, coupled with shiny, stompy glam beats and fuzzy basslines. The result is a set of songs that's pretty infectious, from the Beatles-influenced opener 'The Record's Over' to the Pink Floyd plays post-rock cavern of reverb that is the gentle closer 'Lovesickholiday.'
'You Know' is a little dreary, lacklustre when the intention is clearly to be dreamy and breezy, but the melodies simply aren't enough to lift it and it remains an earthbound plodder. Still, there are plenty of bright pop moments to make up for it, and on balance there are more peaks than troughs, with 'The Ground Below' building a nice groove, infusing elements of vintage Britpop and the pop sensibilities of Squeeze, and 'Make it Easy' rewrites the riff to 'Get it On' for its main motif.
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If a band was to crash your party, you could do far worse than that band being The Russians.
The Russians on MySpace
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