Instant Species are the kind of band that you hate to love. Yep, you read that right. While their brand of rocky pop-punk is as predictable as it is borrowed, you won't be left feeling blue. This Huddersfield mob may look like your dad, but they play catchy-as-fuck spritely pop-punk with a balls many bands half their age would die for. Sure, there are more borrowed riffs here than on a Me First and the Gimme Gimmes album, but I guess that's half the appeal. There are moments stolen from Green Day, moments stolen from The Buzzcocks and moments seemingly taken from 'Jump'-era Van Halen. But what Instant Species lack in originality, they make up for in zest, sleaze and fun.
Rick Garnett's vocals are well produced and polished, yet have a dirty edge to them that helps them stand out. Songs like 'Elvis In Me' and 'No Centrefold' stick out for being punked-up balls of fun, yet have a distinct whiff of Green Day in the air. Still, if you go to a pub and see this kind of thing as a support band, it's the kind of material that would easily keep you from propping up the bar. But for all the sleaze there are songs here which showcase a more serious side - although only slightly so. 'Wealth and Health' hints at the arsey side of A&R men, while other tracks sound like The Strokes if they'd been brought up on a punkier sound.
Believe it or not this is Instant Species fifth album. I haven't heard any of their other records so I cannot comment if the band merely recycle the same style for each album, but even if they did in short bursts this band are fun. It's like a Pot Noodle - cheap, tasteless and merely something to fill a gap, but you're seriously addicted and love them anyway.
www.instantspecies.co.uk
Paul
