Riverstate
Fall
Brothers Tom, Jim and Ed have been playing music together for 15 years. Despite being classically trained their first love has always been alternative rock and, with Andrew Bounincontro on drums, this current line up has been going since early last year.
Opening up with ‘Say Something’, alternative is not necessarily the word that springs to mind. The swirling guitars combining with the simple bass and drums gives matters a decidedly middle of the road feel. When the vocals arrive these prove to be similarly inoffensive topping off this radio friendly song which sits on the lighter side of U2 and Simple Minds.
The title track, ‘Fall’, strums into life with some delicate acoustic guitars backed up by an atmospheric synth. The vocals are delivered clearly and cleanly and, while a little cliché in places, they work with the melody well giving it an ever so slightly desperate feeling.
‘White Lies’ then arrives with some harmonising vocals and promising guitars chugging out a clean but immediate build. Structurally the song is less predictable then its predecessors and, for that reason, it stands out from the bunch. However, on the downside the gentle vocal delivery, while calming on the ears, is probably not what is needed as something a bit rougher around the edges would give this track a real edge.
‘Ache’ drops things back to acoustic, radio friendly territory leaving the last track, ‘You and Me’, to bookend the EP with the sort of rock based ballady thing that Robbie Williams does so well.
In all, this is certainly a competent effort which shows a good song writing talent and well as high production values. The only nagging doubt is, while its clear that if the boys persist they will sooner or later write a chart-buster, its all been heard before somewhere. Perhaps a bit of that classical influence needs to be thrown in the mix because on this effort they sound like Keane with jangly guitars, Coldplay without the drama or The Doves with poppier songs to pick a few from the current crop.
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Written by Habert on
