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| The Electric Soft Parade - No Need to be Downhearted |
| Written by Gareth Main | |
  Hold the Brakes! Brighton Boys finally loose those frowns “It’s a shit business,” utters an almost tearful Mark Gatiss in his role as former Crème Brulée rhythm guitarist Les McQueen in the League of Gentlemen. A character tragically failed by the music industry due in most part to his band’s lack of talent and inability to move with the times, Gatiss then mutters, “I’m glad I’m out of it.” Similarly for the Electric Soft Parade, a band failed by the industry, they went down after their hugely bitter split with Sony BMG with a lot of kicking and screaming and a lot of bad words aimed at the corporate bigwigs who had expected more commercial success from a band who had recently cracked the top 40 and picked up a Mercury Music Prize nomination for debut record Holes in the Wall. The difference between ESP and Crème Brulée of course being that the Soft Parade are far from a generic rock band stuck in the times. For a band metaphorically chewed up and spat out by the music industry, ESP have been busy boys since their last record, 2003’s The American Adventure, flopped and ignited the bitter split. Conquering the industry again with tediously labelled ‘indie supergroup’ (The – thanks Victoria Newton, Joe Mott et al.) Brakes and flirting as bit players in Restlesslist and Actress Hands, the heart of the brothers White has always been deep within their original endeavour into the business and they are back with force. For an album four years in the making, there has been plenty of material to end up on the cutting floor of the Truck Records recording studio, including exemplary instrumental The Friday before Christmas, which still features in their live shows. Other tracks, such as the delicious radio-friendly pop jaunt Misunderstanding, have been around the ESP live show since the ill-fabled days of The American Adventure and still sound fresh and as ahead-of-the-times as the band has always been. The American Adventure was a bizarre record for all involved, from the band to the label to the fans themselves, the album marked a decided change in direction for the band who moved from the more straightforward rock-pop playlist generator that was Holes in the Wall towards a more experimental, drawn-out, psychedelic record with a few chart-friendly singles thrown in for the label’s benefit. But, despite the friendly, accessible edge of Things I’ve Done Before and Lose Yr Frown, there was no money left in the kitty to either promote or give a full release to either track, both of them creeping out underfoot as limited 7” pressings and leaving the album, as exemplary as it was, unheard by any new fans and rejected by the Radio 1 generation who had expected an album of Empty at the Ends. Given the outstanding failure of the follow-up record, it is interesting to see where the Electric Soft Parade find themselves now. Somewhere between the two records without being similar to either, No Need to be Downhearted picks up where 2005’s The Human Body EP left off – with an experimental pop that most critics would label ‘wonky-pop’. It is not wonky in any shape or form – it is just much more interesting then some of the dross that pollutes the pop genre nowadays. Take Woken by a Kiss as an example. A luscious ballad that goes through more codas and identities one would believe it has some sort of complex. You cannot pin it down to a genre and it makes more than a refreshing change from half-arsed musical bollocks that is personified by Razorlight’s America. It continues, last year’s relationship dying, Blair-Bush bating single Life in the Backseat shakes the life into the record after No Need to be Downhearted (Part 1) tenderly welcomes us back into the Soft Parade bosom. Much lauded single If That’s the Case, Then I Don’t Know provides a downer for those fans who had been drooling uncontrollably over the live versions that have been doing the internet rounds but still knocks the socks, albeit not as quickly as it could be, off everything else treading the boards. The intriguing and most exciting element of this album is that it fails to produce a track that is not worth talking about. Every part of the record has its own individual charm that is the ESP stamp – not doing the same thing again, not filling in the gaps. Shore Song dances and drifts away before the crack of Misunderstanding brings you right back up to the dance floor for a smiley-smiley indie sing-along. It is undoubtedly the cheesiest and easiest single choice on the record but it has its place and will find itself on repeat on people’s stereos for some time to come whilst providing an ideal segue before the darker and slow Secrets which itself lends itself as an ideal lead-in to the irresistible Cold World – the only track to survive The Human Body EP but with an additional guitar outro thrown in for good measure. Ending the album seems to be the only problem here. After Tom White takes vocals for the leading nine tracks, Alex, who provided lead vocals for all but one of the debut record’s songs, makes his appearance on the sublime Come Back Inside. The problem is that the boys have overwhelmed with the quality of the album’s tracks and now the listener is either exhausted or the band have run out of steam. It struggles on through Appropriate Ending and through to a grandstand limping finish on No Need to be Downhearted (Part 2). It is a nice end, and one with the positive message only the stupid would fail to pick up – the Electric Soft Parade are back, and they are better than ever to slay the music industry all over again. Likelihood is that they will fail but just like the inspiration behind the album title though (The Fall), they will undoubtedly keep going and just get better further along the ride. Release date: 23/04/07 Artist website: www.electricsoftparade.com Label: Truck  (0) comments - discuss in the forum |
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