Hurry Up Hurricane,
teamABCThere's a little charm that I like about one man band teamABC. It makes writing this review a little hard because I really wanted to like this more than I do. The ideas are all there, it's just the execution isn't anywhere near as good as the bands Stef is clearly influenced by. From the bio 'Hurry Up Hurricane is the brand new LP from one-man band teamABC. Many of the sounds that appear follow the same as those previously seen including the now staple glockenspiel and teamABC's layered vocals'. In short, this is one man doing everything and the end result is a The Maple State/Idlewild/electronica mix which is very rough around the edges.
It's that roughness which is both a good and bad thing. Some of these songs are let down by poor singing, but then at times the tracks are actually brightened by the fact this isn't note perfect. It's strange as there's clearly a lot of love, thought and effort gone into this release and I don't want to knock that. It's also very clear Stef knows how to write a tune as his songs are interesting and clever. It's just the execution isn't that great at times. It reminds me of early Luke Leighfield when Luke was trying very hard to find his sound and it didn't work all that well. But he stuck at it and his last album proved me wrong. I think teamABC need to use Luke as a means of thinking 'hey, I'm not quite there yet but I know I can do this' and be spurred on. The talent is very clearly there, but I think teamABC can do much, much better.
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