The Beat Surrender

Phoenix Block are Andrew Faffe on Guitar, Steve Schoeffler on Keyboards, Tony Catania on Bass and Darrell Nutt on Drums. I was intrigued as to what they would sound like since the promo material said a mix of Punk/Rock blended with European Electronica.

Slightly disappointed in that while very well written, produced and played etc it wasn’t as unique or punchy as I expected. The promo material also said that one of the tracks Future Calling had been adopted as the unofficial Barack Obama campaign song. Thought it would have been more familiar than it was, however it should have been a great advertising opportunity, think of all the word wide coverage it should have got the band.

Having said that I did like the track it had a sound which is currently popular enough to get airplay. Stand out tracks for me were Tear Us Apart, solid repetitive bass gave this enough to keep me interested. Bitter End sounded so much like Keane I thought someone had swapped CD’s when I wasn’t looking. Sadly though after this all I could hear in any of the tracks were Keane, not that this is a major issue as I like Keane.

They’re coming had The Clash influences but with a pop sound. This track didn’t grab me instantly, in fact I would say I really didn’t like it for the first few seconds, however this one grew (very quickly) on me, ended up one of my favourites. I also liked the solid beat of Believe Me and I liked the acoustic guitar on Crying And Dying Again, nothing over dressed about this number, just a plain simple track.

However the best for me was Lost Chance, less punk more melodic but seemed to suit the bands style and vocals really well. Just short of one hours worth of good solid well played music, for me sadly lacking in the special ingredient which would make them stand out in market, however liked what I heard so definitely some potential there.