Apolitical Staples

About a week ago I was sent a review copy of Soular's second release Love Crash Heal and judging by the fact that it has not left my CD player you could say that I like it. It fits in very well with the type of music that I typically listen to and either my ear is influence by what I've listened to in the past or the band is influenced by the likes of U2, Radiohead and Coldplay.

Many of the songs are driven by upfront bass and heavy drums to carry the tune and guitar to add flavour. I previously linked to one of their here - Windows Media Player (So, This Is The Way It Feels) and I was sent a preview of the title track. I judge from this that they expect these to be the songs that will get radio play. I think there are a few songs that stand out even more than these. I really like Take Me Away (you can find an acoustic version here) and Tomorrow Never Comes, both of which are a little slower but very catchy. You can tell that Tomorrow Never Comes would work very well live and I assume that it has a prominent place in their concerts.

Another one of my favourite tracks is Never which sounds to me like a retro song, fits more in 1982 than 2007 - in a good way.

Another good sign for the CD is that there a very few misses. It's A Shame doesn't go anywhere and is ditched after 2:22, it should have been ditched altogether (though they are playing it live). A near miss is Once In A While with its' Radiohead-like piano intro and Chris Martin style high vocals. It is not that the song is not good musically it is that the verses are too high for the singer.

But in the end the solid tracks far outweigh the weak ones and this CD will in my own personal heavy rotation.

Botton line: If you like Radiohead influenced bands that have come out since the last few years you will like Love Crash Heal.