Of National Importance Records are beginning to demonstrate a knack for showcasing quality bands from Yorkshire, and are already showing signs of developing something of a house style, which favours indie with energy.
Alvarez Kings fit this description perfectly, with the five tracks on this EP leaning toward the rockier end of indie without entirely shunning the kind of jangle commonly associated with the north.
The lead and title track is perhaps the weakest of the bunch, with ‘You, Me, Them, Us’, being a much tauter, more claustrophobic number with a solid drum and funk-edged bass groove over which niggling, nagging guitar lines weave into one another. It’s got more than a hint of early Gang of Four, but it brings its own energy and isn’t merely a facsimile. ‘Funeral Reunion’ sounds the way The Twilight Sad would if they’d hailed from Sheffield instead of Glasgow, while ‘Dark Eyed Children’ is catchy without falling into Razorlight territory or being overtly pop, and ‘The Sequel’ is a boisterous, triumphant closer. Good stuff.
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Alvarez Kings Online
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