Seven Years On - Starting Fires
Posted Tue 26 Aug 2008 20:10 by lazarus.
There are many things in life that seems to take forever to come to fruition. A correctly poured pint of Guinness, buses, the return of Halley’s Comet and Seven Years On releases. It was, therefore, rather gratifying to find myself walking home the other night with a copy of Starting Fires clutched firmly in my hands. For those few that aren’t aware of the band, and shame on you, Seven Years On and a band that manage to walk a perfect line between pop and a hard place. Their music is never devoid of sumptuous melodies and wonderful lyrical hooks that get stuck in your head but neither does it lack the power and drive of its more hard rock orientated peers. Two of the songs, I was already familiar with, very glad to see them included, but it was the remaining three that I was really anticipating.
The twin guitar counter play of I’ll Take My Chances pulls you into the fray and from there on in a weaving path of undulating dynamic keeps moving you forward. The one thing that becomes immediately apparent, even at this early juncture, is how well the band manage to layer their instruments, never getting in each others space but able to merge the various sounds together to keep things fresh and offer up variations on the theme. If ever there was an immediate single then Impossible has got to be it. This is the song that they used to collectively blow away the audience, not to mention the rest of the bill, at the 2007 Swindon Shuffle and on record it sounds better than ever. A restrained opening, building with layers of atmosphere and possibility, until it explodes into the most infectious of songs that challenges you to remain unmoved by it. It’s like a musical fruit pastel that you just have to chew…well, in this case go crazy too…but I think that you know what I am getting at.
And if Impossible shows you what the band can achieve when they have got the beast running flat out, In Limbo shows that they can be equally creative when they are holding something back. Picked, rather than thrashed, guitars carry the tune, but to no less effect and to be fair this is sounds like the follow up single in the campaign, the one where you have already caught peoples attention and you can afford to offer up something more subtle. Just a thought. There is a quirky bounce to You Never Look My Way, that immediately puts me in mind of one of my old favourite bands, Power of Dreams, but no one remembers them any more so I will move on. Again, its another infectious song that manages to go in one ear and straight down your leg to set you foot tapping. The CD plays out with the title track, the most subtle song in the pack. The first half of the song has plenty of space and has an almost lazy gait to it, which all makes for a nice contrast as it builds and charges off to its logical conclusion, a busy crescendo to sign out with.
If I have one criticism, it is that Gareth’s vocals often get a bit lost in the mix, a shame as there are some punchy and highly contagious choruses to be found throughout. But, to be fair, that probably is my only gripe, musically, it never lets you down and as a representation of what they do live, its pretty much spot on. At one extreme, nice understated, long note, lead guitar breaks contrast nicely with intricately picked rhythms and at others the band seem happy to just thrash it out and all the time a foundation of busy, but not unnecessarily so, drums and solid bass hold everything in place. It has light and shade, power and subtlety, and when you get down to basics, is one of the best collections of songs to come my way for a long time.
Comments (3)
A CD of the EP can be ordered from the myspace (www.myspace.com/sevenyearson) and it's also on itunes, Amazon MP3, napster, and tons of other download sites. Please buy it, we're running seriously short of jelly babies.
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