Dwell - The Envy Corps Album Review

Photo by:Ben Parks

Album Review

American indie group The Envy Corps’ second album certainly proves to be an interesting one. Their debut amongst major record label Vertigo Records shows similarities between lead singer Luke Pettipoole and Radiohead’s Thom Yorke with opening track ‘Wires and Wool’, making it an obvious choice as one of the band’s singles. The third single ‘Rhinemaidens’ features a catchy keyboard work mixed with repetitive drums which allows the track to grow on you quickly, whilst ‘The Story Problem’ sees the band sound more Arctic Monkeys based, with the vocals being scarily similar to Monkey’s singer Alex Turner. ‘Baby Teeth’, I feel is the standout track being an acoustic based track, building into a louder indie song much like Radiohead’s ‘Karma Police’ although perhaps it is centred more around vocals. The introduction of a xylophone on ‘The Keys To Living’ adds a unique touch to the track, whilst light backing drum and guitar work makes it very melodic. By finishing it with a loud kick of electric guitar and thrashing drums shows that The Envy Corps could very easily outshine many current indie bands in the U.K. The band’s style on the album of using slow introductions with fast paced ending makes them standout above the current indie genre, whilst their strong vocalist Luke Pettipoole is clearly the focal point of the band.

The band have produced a solid first major record. It features a variety of catchy songs, acoustic and louder based tracks which together provide a change amongst the current overcrowded indie-disco music. They have certainly helped themselves by releasing their three best songs as singles (The Story Problem, Rhinemaidens and Wires and Wool). The only downside is that they haven’t any tracks that really become instantly likeable upon first hearing them, unlike bands such as ‘Kaiser Chiefs’ and ‘Pigeon Detectives’ which use basic songs but become instantly catchy. The Envy Corps’ songs are rather complex, meaning they won’t appeal to the mass audience of indie fans immediately.

Tom Crowther