Cities

Cities EP

Written by: TL on 12/02/2014 20:57:56

A browse of Spotify's search results shows that there are or have been several bands simply named Cities, but this latest one is a UK group from Tunbridge Wells whose self-titled debut EP was released little over a month ago, and who have already had the good fortune to open for Mallory Knox on tour. A quick listen to the EP will show that the young band aims to provide their own version of your typical, modern British rock band; powerful, energetic music with heart on sleeve emotiveness and a melodic approach at every turn. Bands like The Blackout and The First come to mind as going for the throat of the listener in a similarly direct way, although there are also hints that the band would like to spread their wings a bit more dramatically, in a comparable way to how last year's newcomers Mallory Knox did so very succesfully.

The EP is comprised of four tracks of which opener "One Of These Days" gets started on a decent note, moving quickly from a recognisable guitar intro to a powerfully sung chorus hook which is emphasised with an all out croon towards the end, but admittedly, the whoa-oh backing vocals are completely redundant and if I'm honest, a little lame. The following "Only Alive" has less going for it in terms of straight up catchiness, which gives you room to notice that the sound is a little unrefined and sounds more like a mixed and blurry shade of a lot of bands the British underground already has, than anything particularly novel. It's a quickly forgotten hurdle before "You Deserve Anything (Standing Ovation)" opens with a few more pointless whoa-ohs, but does manage to recover somewhat courtesy of some slightly better guitar lines than the former track. At the end "The Early Hours" fortunately bookends the release with another positive impression, as frontman Ryan Checksfield really pushes his voice all out in the first lines of the chorus, making for a good contrast when he goes lower in the following two.

Overall though, as you can probably tell from my tone, I think "Cities" EP is decent and has a few things going for it, like the promising singing and solid guitar dynamics, but at the same time the whoa-ohs sound uninspired and the rhythms and overall song movements are somewhat pedestrian. The band definitely needs to improve in these areas at the least, supposing they want to avoid staying as anonymous and ordinary as their choice of bandname.

Download: Mallory Knox, The Blackout, The First,
For The Fans Of: One Of These Days, The Early Hours
Listen: facebook.com/citiesuk

Release Date 16.01.2014
Self-released

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