The Beat Surrender

Buck Brothers are made up of an Anglo/Irish/Swedish three piece, playing indie rock punk influences. Checking them out on the Internet it says they had been likened to The Clash, The Sex Pistols with early Duran Duran and Depech Mode thrown in, also The Ramones, Joy Division and The Cramps.

I was optimistic, however as with most things in life the reality rarely lives up to the hype. The opening track Run Run Run Run Run wasn’t too bad. I’m sure that they were influenced by all of the above, however this didn’t come across in this track. After this it went down hill rapidly, the next three tracks were poorly written and even quite boring. Until Liar, when the pace seemed to pick up. Great guitar licks held a mediocre track together to make it just about passable. Next track Together We Fall was again just about ok. Girls, Skirts, Boots, Bikes, great fun title and a real fun sounding track, reminded me a little of The Jam but faster. This track really seemed to suit the band and from here the standard picks up. Yes, No, Stay, Go, Don’t, Will, Wont was not just a catchy title it had a catchy sound again the guitars were excellent. Gutu Politix was a reasonable album track, which reminded me of a lot of the American New Wave Punk, (Green Day, Blink 182).

Wake Up Call, fast intro which I really liked but then the vocals were a bit odd, much slower then expected but did have a catchy chorus. The last track She’s Real was more rock influenced, edging towards Bloc Party sound, strange lyrics but another track I thought was definitely worth playing again.

This was one of the shortest albums I listened to for a while, 12 tracks in 35 mins. However, for me this left it with a feel of a hastily thrown together meal, half good, half bad. Potential is there, they can play, sing just need to get the content mix right and in a style which they are happy with but most of all which suits them all.