Them's Fightin' Words

The Down Lizzo:

I’m the world’s biggest music snob. I don’t know how it happened, one day I just woke up and I was just this snobby arsehole when it came to music, like the worst hipster you know multiplied by 1000.

As such, there’s nothing that gives me more pleasure than discovering a talented band before they release their debut EP / album.

In the case of The Bedroom Hour, a five-piece post-Britpop / alternative rock band based in London I got in there from ground zero whilst visiting the UK last year and have stayed in touch with the guys ever since.

Today is the official launch of their debut EP Themes, a polished six-track taste of what The Bedroom Hour are capable of and, having gotten my filthy mitts on a pre-release copy a few weeks back, I was seriously impressed by not only this band’s musical chops, but also the production value of the EP which is a shit-ton better than other bands I’ve latched onto early in their careers.

Sick Tracks:

The Bedroom Hour’s biggest strength as a band lies in the fact that they aren’t trying to reinvent the wheel, but rather carve out a sound that is distinctly theirs from some of the greats who have gone before them.

Musically they share a lot of ties with a band like Coldplay and weirdly enough, some of guitarist Rob Payne’s bright, ethereal riffs even reminded me of U2’s early stuff, before they became gigantic wankers.

“Tyrannosaur” was the first track that made me sit up and take notice. It comes on with a Clash-like bassline and builds to a sweeping synth crescendo verse while frontman Stu Drummond’s powerful vocal melody takes centre stage as he intones the line “You’ll scare everyone you ever loved away”.

Another thing that struck me about this band right from the get-go was their expert use of space in their tracks. Nothing feels forced, contrived or like they’re trying to impress for the sake of it. Instead they give their material the room it needs to breathe and leave you to draw your own conclusions.

It’s a breath of fresh air in an era when artists are becoming obsessed with pioneering obscure genres whilst bludgeoning audiences to death with hooks and riffs that we’ve heard a thousand times before.

“X Marks The Spot” (which I’ve posted below) is another stand-out track. It’s a stadium sized anthem, a love song that soars effortlessly above the trite, cliched emotional slop that is all too prevalent in the material we’re bombarded with through commercial TV and radio.

The EP closer “Slow Motion Cinema” resonates with longing and a sense of deep and profound loss. It pulls no punches as Drummond’s vocals build towards the glimmering ray of light that is the simple chorous line “I close my eyes to see slow motion cinema / The time of our lives captured on camera.”

It’s a track that hints at so much more, both in terms of it’s subject matter and in terms of what The Bedroom Hour has to offer as a band.

Should You Give A Shit?

Are the Kennedy’s gun-shy? Hell yeah you should give a shit. I have a feeling deep in my bones that, given a year or so, The Bedroom Hour are going to be pretty huge in which case you definitely want to be one of the snobby music arseholes like your Tiger pal who got in from Day Zero.

Here’s the video for “X Marks The Spot”. If you want to get your hands on the EP, it’s available from iTunes as of today.

Final Verdict: 7/10

-ST