No Need To Be Downhearted - The Electric Soft Parade Album Review

The Electric Soft Parade

Album Review

Brighton already has one famous resident - Fat Boy Slim.

The Electric Soft Parade are also residents, apparently, but have yet to acquire a similar status. So will this third album propel them into the big time? Previous albums haven't done well, so they've parted company with their major label, with brothers Alex and Tom White going to Truck Records. Bits of it will be very appealing to the mainstream, but some bits will be the reserve of musos. When it works, it works really well, and is unlike anything on the current scene. In parts, their music has definite 60s trippy hippy leanings - Shore Song ( a la Devendra Banhart / Sufjan Stevens ) blended with current chart pop outings like heavy chord riffed Misunderstanding ( a great single lads.. come on get it out ! ) and crunching rocker If That's The Case ( this too a potential single ). Secrets is the type of alt -country outing by Micah. P. Hinson - sparse and 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 60s songbook, with its upbeat and catchy hooks - maybe a tribute to Macca? Elsewhere, we get glorious music from the likes of Come Back Inside despite its cacophonous ending.

Title track, parts 1 and 2 show their versatility and the strength in depth in terms of songwriting, though Life In A Backseat is their only major weak spot.

Their potential is immense.

Elly Roberts