Hal

Drawn by some cheery album art I put this on as background music to a bit of work a few days ago - and I like it! It has been tough to find any meaty info on this new Irish band (formed in 2003, if that counts as new), but it seems they are brothers Dave and Paul Allen on vocals and guitars, with Stephen O'Brien on keyboards and Steve Hogan completing the four piece on drums. Their album is eponymous, but has been listed as Play The Hits, after one of their 3 singles to date. Stylistically it is up-tempo, soft-rock guitar with a lot of falsetto and not a lot of edge - you are reminded of The Beach Boys, or indeed any band who has tried to emmulate those 60's icons ever since; it is sunshine music, light, fluffy and pleasing, and if the day matches the mood you just might find yourself saying "let's listen to that again", like I did! Will they make it big? Well not on the evidence of this, but it also doesn't sound as if they tried to make a world-changing album, just a collection of sweet ditties to get you whistling. In this sense it is a complete success, with no song worthy of the Skip button and several songs worthy of the Repeat button. I'll definitely be looking out for them live, and looking for them to stamp their mark more vividly next time around, because you sense they may be capable of it. 8/10 Kx