The Beat Surrender

Four-piece indie band formed in 2001, state influences from Stravinsky, Hendrix, Miles Davies and Sex Pistols, so pretty varied! They have been likened to The Clash, The Cure, The Only Ones, Ash and Weezer, again pretty varied.

In total four tracks on this EP first up is Bardot, loved the violin, gave it an edge over some of the indie pop around at the moment, could be what is needed to make it stand out from the crowd. Good title, good lyrics, musically other than the inclusion of the violin not too dissimilar from many other bands. Next up All Grown Up On TV, not much to say about this track, it didn’t stand out in any way, ok indie pop but nothing more.

Are You Receiving Me, another track with the violin, the only thing which really struck me was that the chorus was quite weak but wouldn’t have taken much effort to give this more strength (you can’t beat a good chorus). Last track was The Way You Talk About It, lovely opening, great guitars, seems a bit flat as the track progresses, the use of the violin just about stops it from being turned off early. Good job because suddenly the tempo changes, the guitars become stronger, the vocals louder and faster, a great improvement, which left this as my favourite track on the EP.

My only worries about this band are all the tracks felt very similar, not much variance in style/lyrics/music etc etc. In addition, the vocals are quite weak, I felt at times as if it was a strain on his voice to actually sing.