I like surprises. Nice ones obviously; I’m not so keen when people spring a nasty surprise. When Covington‘s latest eight-tracker arrived on the doormat it didn’t fill me full of excitement – I’ve never heard of the band before and I like to think I’m pretty clued up when it comes to who is sneaking up on the radar and releasing quality records. But this is where the surprise bit comes in, because ‘Devised Without A Plan’ is a quality blast of Hot Water Music-meets Good Riddance style punk rock.
The opening blast of ‘The Longest Day’ sealed the deal for me, with guitars exploding from the speakers and drums rattling off like machine gun fire. There’s a Face To Face vibe about ‘Days Spent Counting Hours’, with its thick melodic edge shining through the passionate and intense vocals. In recent years this type of music seems to have taken a back seat in favour of bands going down the ultra pop-punk route or down the dyed-black-hair-and-screaming route. Covington will make no apologies that they sound like they’ve come straight out of 1998 and they have absolutely no need to – this is a quality little record and a nice little surprise.
Tiberius Records
Paul