The Arkwrights
Demo CD
The Arkwrights may have sent in a record but I think that they might have been better off arranging for one of The Mag’s reviewers to come and see them live.
You see, they have a pretty predictable sound that emulates the Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand, with crossovers to disco and rock and unfortunately there is really nothing on this demo to set them apart.
They are actually very competent at what they are doing. In fact, a good measure of just how competent they are (and just how much they borrow their style) is the first statement made by a young lass that stumbled into my room while I was listening to ‘Fires’; ‘I didn’t know the Arctic Monkeys had a female singer’. I suppose sounding like the quickest selling band in the history of UK music is not necessarily a bad thing, but when you’ve essentially stripped yourself of your own identity, surely it is.
‘Hugo, I Go To The Disco’ has guitar pieces and drumming that sound as though they too could have been lifted off an AM track and although ‘Jack’ sounds a bit different it’s still not an original sound.
That’s the reason this CD is just ‘alright’; because it’s not giving me anything new and it’s not improving on what others have done first, but they are playing well and the band gels together without any problems. I wish them luck and hope that they continue to play together but they need to create a recognisable Arkwrights sound.
As I said in my opening statement, the band might have been better off arranging for one of us to have gone to see them live, their style of music is made for getting crowds going and I can imagine the playing will only improve when they can see the way the crowd is reacting to their music.
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