Every so often, there are bands who appear on the bills of gigs, completely with no hype and anonymous, and they turn out to be completely formed and brilliant. For me, Stornoway are one of these bands. While their live shows have been entertaining, the songs have also been great. Taken outside of the live setting, without the fun additions during their performance, it’s clear to see that this is a band of excellent song writers and arrangers. Ignoring anything from the past decade of songwriting, instead they revert back to the good old days, where great, simple songs will always shine through.

Take the first track Zorbing as an example. There’s everything for a classic pop song, great harmonies, arrangement (with trumpets!), warm harmonies, and a song that keeps moving forwards. It could fit in anywhere during the early Belle and Sebastian albums. The rest of the tracks on this EP prove that they don’t only have one trick and one song, as they continue to sprinkle their magical songwriting and arrangement over genres where so many have failed before (ballads, country jaunts, straight forward pop songs).

If you don’t get a chance to catch this lot live, then, at the very least, get over to their myspace to hear the songs.

On their website, Death in Public namecheck bands such as My Bloody Valentine, the Jesus and Mary Chain and Joy Division, but they seem to have left some others off the list too. The opening track, Start A Fight, could fit in well with the punky pop of the Undertones, and the singer’s voice does have an edge of Feargal Sharkey about it.

The other two tracks on this single sound a lot more like their named influences, especially the 80s indie and Placebo influences. Seas of tight guitars that swirl around creating a dark, menacing feel, particularly on the final track Vincent Vega.

This is a good strong debut release for a band, although it falls down a bit because it just sounds so much like other music that’s around. It’s early on, and there’s plenty of time for the band to build on their own sound.

Death in Public

Listening to this CD is like entering the Beaver Fuel fantasy world, where Leigh travels as a space explorer (in the rather cute Sci-Fi Romance) or vents his conspiracy theories (Eurovision Political Favour Contest). The faster, more punk-pop tracks generally work better, as Leigh layers on the fuzzy guitars and speeds the songs along. While the slower songs lack that variety but shos his more sensitive side.
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