Manchester seems ripe for top bands right now, and while Azure Glow claim to be the city's best kept secret, I'd argue there were a great many bands who could equally lay claim to that throne. More indie-rock than many of the other excellent bands in the city, AG have a secret weapon in singer JP Cooper who wails and cries like a younger Brandon Boyd - certainly good if you like your melodies to quiver and move up and down as he does many times. Of course 'Nothing We Can Do' comes across a little like he's taken singing lessons from Celine Dion, but on the whole the vocals separate this band from the 'average' to the 'potentially going places' section.
Azure Glow don't really do anything new, but they do the indie-rock thing very well. Mixing Rival Schools and Incubus to a neat effect, they ditch the screaming some bands of a similar ilk churn out in favour of a really warm and endearing sound. It's difficult not to like this band really because they have a kind of sound that will suck you in quite easily. And, as a said, while the band don't break too much new ground, there's more than enough potential here to mark them as ones to watch. Whether they're Manchester's best kept secret is up for debate though...
www.azureglow.com
We Play Records
Paul
