State Shirt – Let’s Get Bloody
Certainly the naked woman on the cover doesn’t hurt in getting your attention, but inside there’s a polished Emo Pop album with a lot of style that isn’t really flagged up by the vampire chic. The rear cover shot (equally nude) might have been better with its David Lynch mystique. Opening with ‘National Felt’ (arf) it is shimmering Dream Pop with a strong melodic sense. ‘The Road To Hana’ continues in the same vein – excepting the insistent, percussive chorus “Are we there yet?” .
It takes until ‘Suffer Someday’ to soar, chiming guitar and layered vocals with a chorus that positively begs for the epithet “anthemic”. A cover of ‘Disappointed’ by Electronic loses the dance feel with a more overtly Pet Shop Boys edge yet adds little to the original and is rather pointless. ‘Cassettes’ is a track that might well receive air-play if pushed into the world that enjoys Lana Del Rey , Goitier et al, i.e. darkish poptones. ‘Beth’s On Fire’ is a liitle more late-80s lush, a little like The Lover Speaks .
The remainder is more of the same , smooth, shimmering Pop with a Gothic veneer. Perhaps best is the morphia Mass of ‘Sometimes When I’m Dreaming’ – less glossy and all the better for it. The album would benefit with being a little more quirky or dark and with a little more depth and less surface – possibly the influence of band members on what is essentially a solo album. On purely its appeal to my taste it gets 6/10. On what the mainstream might make of it let’s give it 7/10.