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The Novasouls - Pipe Dreams And Bravado
The Novasouls are a five-piece indie band based in Ipswich. Influences include Libertines, The Beatles, Oasis, The Jam, Arctic Monkeys and strangely Abba and Bruce Springsteen.
Opening track is The Pretty Girls In Prague, it kicks off with a ripping guitar, great lyrics all the early punk style I would associate with The Jam. You Smoke Too Many Cigarettes tells a gritty tale of marital bliss (or lack of it) this track could have been The Libertines, same rock and roll with a good measure of punk thrown in. Black Sambucca has a slight change in style this time sounding more Arctic Monkeys/Libertines, a good strong beat but perhaps slightly weaker in the vocal area.
I loved the opening guitar on A Plan For Saturday, another gritty track telling the tale of Saturday night out on the lash. Definitely written in the style of The Arctic Monkeys, a thumping drum beat with great guitar riffs. What D’you Wanna Fight for has the best chorus on the album, in the punk/pop style, which I think, would make the track have the widest appeal. Open Wounds, strong guitar riffs leads into the most obvious Oasis track I’ve heard for some time. Don’t go thinking this is a copy cat band, far from it the influences are quite obvious, however they seem to have perfected taking something they like and making it there own.
Celluloid is much slower in pace than the other tracks, this shows just how versatile this band can be, it couldn’t be described as melodic or ever be a track for the last dance (showing my age again!!!!) Medusa is a very Jam sounding track both in lyrics and music, not the strongest track on the album but still very listen able. Turn A Blind Eye has a strange and sad story behind it. Apparently it was written the week before several bodies were found in Ipswich, this then became a story about the young girls who had drifted into the world of prostitution and in many cases without there parents knowledge. The lyrics “I’d hate to see your photo on the front page of The Star” (a local newspaper) this must have rung true for the parents of the dead girls. The song its self is a great punk/rock number with true-life gritty lyrics. Last track is Salvage Some Hope, this for me saves the best until last. It combines some thrilling guitars with pounding drumbeat.
- The Novasouls
- Pipe Dreams And Bravado (2007)
- Category: Album
- Label: Self Financed Album
- Reviewed by: Smartie
- Published on: 17 Jul 2007
- Comments: 0
- Beat Surrender Rating:
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Add to favouritesThe Novasouls have a good mix of influences, which they shamelessly show off with some style. Nothing wrong with this, in fact this is one of the best albums I’ve listened to for a good while. I just loved it as did my 15 year old son, so it just shows that they are appealing to a wide age range. I struggled to find anything even slightly negative about it. I did read a review the band included with the cd which slightly slated them for the use of swearwords, this for me wasn’t an issue the lyrics are about life as it is for teens and twenty’s and I don’t think I can think of anyone this age who wouldn’t swear. (Or even other age groups for that matter) But if swearing offends, this album may not be for you.
As a side note the cd cover and the artwork on the cd were very professional, if you get to see this band just make sure you have enough cash with you to buy the cd. If not you really should log on to the web site/myspace site and give them a play, you make like what you hear, I did.
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