Kids Near Water are a very rare breed indeed; namely a UK band who take the generic US post hardcore sound and manage to play around with it and make it their own. After a promising ep released in 2001, the band unleashed their debut full length on firefly late last year. ‘Hey Zeus!’ is the albums title, and it’s a shame we didn’t review it earlier, as it is without a doubt one of the best UK releases of last year.
Kids Near Water sound like the mutant offspring of Hot Water Music and early Jimmy Eat World, combining sheer emotion and perfect melodies with ease. In Brian they have a singer who gives every song his most, and helps give the band a unique sound. And with their debut album they have a package that, even discounting the actual songs, sounds great thanks to John Hannon’s production work. This is an album that feels polished, but never strays near over-produced territory.
‘Hey Zeus!’ is introduced to the listener through the great opening track, ‘Bad day contest’. It begins with a brooding electronic beat that reminds me of ‘Anthem’ by The Wildhearts, before veering into a great song, full of melody, emotion and very infectious backing vocals. Next up is ‘And the horse you rode in on’, which proves to be another strong track. It opens with a strong and heavy guitar riff, before Brian enters screaming. This song really accentuates the bands ability for capturing melody in a perfectly structured way. ‘Forward thinking’ follows in much the same vein, although this time, adding more tempo changes into proceedings.
The nice thing about the album is that it constantly surprises you, like the short instrumental track ‘Speaker Wire’, and it really does get better with every listen. There is much here to both challenge and reward the listener. It may only consist of ten tracks, but most of those ten are of a very high quality. The likes of ‘The answer is never’ and ‘Pleasant morning thoughts’ stand out like beacons of light in the UK post hardcore scene. It’s always nice when a homegrown band stands up to the weight of American imports, and more importantly proves to be a worthy match. But this band do things their way as shown by closing track, ‘Be careful’, a five-minute monster of a song, that rolls a number of styles into one, and is very light on vocals.
‘Hey Zeus!’ is simply one of the best UK post hardcore albums I’ve heard. It cements the earlier promise that Kids Near Water have shown and sees them becoming a very mature and polished musical force. If they produce this kind of quality on a debut full-length release, then they have a very bright future ahead of them.
Mark
