A God-awful Small Affair

There hasn't been this much fuss made over a pair of American lips since Monica Lewinsky. It was all so promising at the beginning - the nostalgic amateurism of the music video for last year's Video Games dazzled an online audience and the sinister, deathly tinge on her breed of romance enchanted many. And there's little on show here that'll hush the haters - she nonchalantly sings "money is the anthem of success" in a way sure to prompt much sardonic eye-rolling - but there're times when I'm convinced that many online music fans will hate over the most pathetic of things. The issues of her authenticity are pooed when you pore over the careers of David Bowie and Madonna, and any qualms over her supposed plastic surgery are frighteningly shallow at best. When did music become such a hotbed of misguided misogyny? Why can't popstars just emerge without about seven million claims of falsehood and artificiality, now? The album begins with the title tra...

I think I'm correct in saying that I've not yet come across a band who, in the music video to their first single, decided to introduce themselves by getting dressed in drag. Not even the Scissor Sisters. A cynic might say this was merely a gimmick to make them stand out and they'd be right. But standing out in modern music is no easy feat. Citing their influences as classically Americana as Pixies and Nirvana might come as a surprise for a Camden band - especially given their knack for a slick pop song. Indeed at first it's difficult to decipher just where their musical heroes influenced the band, but there's enough in the way of raw rock power and appeal on this, a solid debut. They begin promisingly with some 80s chamber-electronics opening 'Whenever', a Depeche Modish hook that returns throughout inbetween some token indie rock. Distortion and colossal riffs certainly do away with any poseur claims, and vocally Johnny Lloyd is pretty faultless. They then ...