A Thousand Odd Lines,
Exit AvenueThere's something on this EP which makes it hard to like. On the face of it, the HelloGoodbye-esque cute choruses mash well with the band's electronic side, but the cynic in me says the band are no different to any other pop-punk band in the country, just they have Enter Shikari style 'rave' samples looped over the beginning and end of every song. And for me, as I've said about ES before, it's an unncessary gimmick that makes the band stand out from all of the others. In a similar sense Exit Avenue do the same; they take elements of different sounds and fuse them together. And while it works in the sense kids will love this band, for me it just seems a bit forced and contrived. In short, expect this band to start getting a massive fanbase, but I don't feel it's altogether justified.
The four songs on this EP are pretty tight. None of them are exceptional, but they're well structured and catchy. The best track is arguably 'Better Off Alone' as the chorus jumped out at me immediately as being one of the strongest on the record. But I can't get over all of the contemporary bleep bleeps and synths that are thrown around willy nilly. Correct me if I'm wrong, but these guys - like Enter Shikari - probably weren't attending raves back in 1988 rendering their homage to a genre of music I don't like all that much a bit, well, silly.
The simple fact is if you're looking for a toned down Enter Shikari, Exit Avenue are the band for you. A lot of kids will love this band, seriously love them, so by all means give them a whirl. I'm just not totally convinced.
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