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Elly Roberts reviews
Truck Records
- April 2007
- Rating: 6/10
Brighton already has one famous resident Fat Boy Slim.
The Electric Soft Parade are also residents, apparently, but have yetto acquire a similar status. So will this third album propel them into thebig time?
Previous albums havent done well, so theyve parted company with their majorlabel, with brothers Alex and Tom White going to Truck Records. Bits of itwill be very appealing to the mainstream, but some bits will be the reserveof musos. When it works, it works really well, and is unlike anything on thecurrent scene.
In parts, their music has definite ’60s trippy hippy leanings Shore Song (a la Devendra Banhart/Sufjan Stevens) blended with currentchart pop outings like heavy chord riffed Misunderstanding (a greatsingle lads.. come on get it out !) and crunching rocker If Thats TheCase (this too a potential single).
Secrets is the type of alt-country outing by Micah. P. Hinson sparseand hollow acoustic guitar and vocals which juxtapose perfectly with its predecessor,though it does rise to a heavily brassed-up and percussive crescendo.
Amazingly, Cold War could have been right out of a McCartney ’60ssongbook, with its upbeat and catchy hooks maybe a tribute to Macca?Elsewhere, we get glorious music from the likes of Come Back Inside despiteits cacophonous ending.
Title track, parts 1 and 2 show their versatility and the strength in depthin terms of songwriting, though Life In A Backseat is their onlymajor weak spot.
Their potential is immense.
Weblinks:electricsoftparade.com /myspace.com/electricsoftparade /truckrecords.com
The full list of tracks included are :
1. No Need To Be Down Hearted (Part 1)
2. Life In The Backseat
3. Woken By A Kiss
4. If Thats The Case, Then I Dont Know
5. Shore Song
6. Misunderstanding
7. Secrets
8. Cold World
9. Have You Ever Felt Like Its Too Late ?
10. Come Back Inside
11. Appropriate Ending
12. No Need To Be Downhearted (Part 2)
Elly Roberts passed away in 2011, but he was a man who was so passionate about all types of music and loved meeting his musical heroes, such as Mick Hucknall at a book signing at the Trafford Centre, Manchester in 2007.
A former teacher and also a music journalist, DJ and radio presenter on local community station Calon FM, plus appearances on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio 2, Elly started doing reviews for DVDfever.co.uk in 2004 and he did the majority of the CD and concerts reviews on the website.
I know also that he loved getting away for the summer to Spain and I hope that wherever he is now he is enjoying the hot sunshine and, as one of his friends has said on his Facebook page, that he is interviewing his musical heroes.