All Rise
"There was nothing I could do, to make you stay by my side"
Aaah. Equally earnest, if a little removed from Nasum sonically, are fellow Swedes the Electric Pop Group, whose new EP "Sunrise" arrives just in time for 'spring', showcasing their linear wraparound of guitars and the Aamot brothers' vocal harmonies in full blossom. "I Could See The Lights" is the first number: like their track on the Matinee Hit Parade CD, "My Only Inspiration", it's an impassioned paean to a hug target, seemingly one met at a Magic Numbers gig, but despite those unpromising beginnings you can feel the love. It shares gently understated indie-pop bounteousness - think maybe BMX Bandits circa the Star Wars LP - with the closing track, "Come And See Me", ensuring that the EP is topped and tailed with headskipping 6-string chimes of the highest order, guitars vying for the truest jangle.
In between, just as Ghetto skipped back a generation to metamorphose into Sticky Fingaz, we swear that EPG do the same with none other than Brighter. "This Is The Town", its delectable verses dripping with the melancholy of smalltown entrapment, starts to ring towards the end with musical hints of the harder-edged Brighter singles. And then there's third track, "Summer's Day": it would be possible, we suppose, to listen to it and not think of Brighter, but you'd probably have to be on crack (although given that Brighter once garnered a review that mentioned the Beatles, Snow Patrol and the Stone Roses, some reviewers evidently are). What is laudable, however, is that "Summer's Day" is a hale, rather than a pale, imitation: it could almost be from Brighter's "Laurel" sessions at the White House the best part of 20 years ago, the lyrical wistfulness ("I wanted to run away") and world-worn sentiment ice-wrapped by acoustic guitars. It is, honestly, delish, and the Sunrise EP is part of the Matinee renaissance.
"There was nothing I could do, to make you stay by my side"
Aaah. Equally earnest, if a little removed from Nasum sonically, are fellow Swedes the Electric Pop Group, whose new EP "Sunrise" arrives just in time for 'spring', showcasing their linear wraparound of guitars and the Aamot brothers' vocal harmonies in full blossom. "I Could See The Lights" is the first number: like their track on the Matinee Hit Parade CD, "My Only Inspiration", it's an impassioned paean to a hug target, seemingly one met at a Magic Numbers gig, but despite those unpromising beginnings you can feel the love. It shares gently understated indie-pop bounteousness - think maybe BMX Bandits circa the Star Wars LP - with the closing track, "Come And See Me", ensuring that the EP is topped and tailed with headskipping 6-string chimes of the highest order, guitars vying for the truest jangle.
In between, just as Ghetto skipped back a generation to metamorphose into Sticky Fingaz, we swear that EPG do the same with none other than Brighter. "This Is The Town", its delectable verses dripping with the melancholy of smalltown entrapment, starts to ring towards the end with musical hints of the harder-edged Brighter singles. And then there's third track, "Summer's Day": it would be possible, we suppose, to listen to it and not think of Brighter, but you'd probably have to be on crack (although given that Brighter once garnered a review that mentioned the Beatles, Snow Patrol and the Stone Roses, some reviewers evidently are). What is laudable, however, is that "Summer's Day" is a hale, rather than a pale, imitation: it could almost be from Brighter's "Laurel" sessions at the White House the best part of 20 years ago, the lyrical wistfulness ("I wanted to run away") and world-worn sentiment ice-wrapped by acoustic guitars. It is, honestly, delish, and the Sunrise EP is part of the Matinee renaissance.
