Single Review by Mark Bayross
The second single to be taken from the Scots’ forthcoming self-titled debut album is a decidedly different beast to HONEY. Polished keyboards and jangly guitars create a bedrock of melody for Ewan MacFarlane’s swaggering vocals, and while the overall effect isn’t dissimilar to Tim Booth fronting Pulp, there’s an epic quality that should translate well live.
B-side THE KINKY TELEPHONE SONG is a demo, but makes up for its lack of production quality with an intense, slow-burning performance, this time evoking none other than The Verve.
Herein lies the problem with The Grim Northern Social (apart from that big turn-off of a name) – while they can craft an impressive song and can add enough variety that I am actually looking forward to the album, on the evidence of their singles up to now, they do lack an identity of their own, sounding more like a who’s who of mid-90s Britpop.
Still, it’s early days and I have liked both singles. Maybe the album will prove me wrong.
