Saturday 29 September 2007

Nightmare of You- Bang EP

I only very recently got into Nightmare of You, although I listened to them about a year ago and dismissed them as a crappy Morrissey impersonation band. Well guess what? They still ARE a crappy Morrissey impersonation band, but there is something quite lovely about them. The first song I heard recently was 'I Was Never a Normal Boy' which I thought was actually an old song of theirs off their debut album, but I now see it's on this Bang EP which only came out last week. There is something really moving about this song, and infectiously catchy. My first thought on hearing it was 'it's Morrissey meets Greenday' (YUCK!) which I still can't help thinking sometimes, but there is something very English about the lyrics and the guitars if you can get over the slightly nasally American accent. He IS trying to be Morrissey (despite his accent), but what is so wrong with that? I like The Dears solely for that reason too. We need something to plug the gap whilst Moz is off procuring young men in Rome or whatever. Lyrically the singer has stolen everything from Moz, not wanting to go out, feeling like an outsider and all of those romantic ideals. Some of the lyrics are great, some are a bit crap. But it really works for some reason. I think this song in particular is the strongest of the EP. All the songs are quite samey, but they are all pretty much good, so I'm cool with that. Their self-titled debut album is very similar too, and I especially like The Days Go By Oh So Slow off that. (I like all the ones with long titles)
I Don't Want to Dance Anymore has a great opening line and again is just catchy as fuck. I know this is one of those bands you're not meant to like. But I have the same music taste as 15 year old boys on last.fm so I'm clearly at that intellectual level. I'm just glad I can comment on some new music finally because I hardly ever like new stuff.
You're Very Dear to Me is a very Morrissey-esque title but sounds slightly more like they Beach Boys. Say what you like about Nightmare of You but they aren't original in the slightest. I'm not fussy, as long as I can sing along to it and it makes me laugh or cry.
Bang (the song, as opposed to the EP) has quite funny lyrics about, yes you guessed it, wanting to fuck. He's kind of insulting someone into bed, which always works for me, I find. Not too sure about the guitar at the end though.
The final song on the EP is called Herbal Jazz Cigarette which is clearly an awful title but it's pretty good and I like the lyrics. All in all I think Bang is slightly less good than the album but only just, and I Was Never a Normal Boy is better than anything off the album, so all is well in the world.
By the way, don't google image search this band. They look like a bunch of knob-ends, and they are apparently 'emo'! In that case Morrissey must have invented emo. Actually... he probably did.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

great band. if you listen to it for what it is, which is upbeat and cynical, nonchalant and whimsical, without drawing comparisons, you'll enjoy it. i do.