When you start reading comparisons to Funeral For A Friend, and find out the band you’re about to review are of Welsh descent, you can be forgiven for thinking the record you’re about to unwrap is a case of the heard-it-all-befores. Dopamine, another Golf signee who are of the post-hardcore variety, do have passing resemblences to a band who have spawned a million clones, but they have enough about them to actually ride the wave of success FFAF helped create. Yes, I know that wave is about to crash onto the shore, but there’s no reason why bands shouldn’t surf out the final ripples, especially when they carefully craft a record as enjoyable as this one. To immediately discard Dopamine as a ‘scene’ rip-off would be unwise – there are some rather large choruses here and there’s not as much of the scream/sing stuff as you’d maybe think.
‘Auditioning My Escape Plan’ is far from original or inventive, which is why it only scores 3.5. However, while the band mash up parts of a highly successful genre (the band themselevs suggest their influences include the likes of Jimmy Eat World, for instance), they do so with a panache that keeps them interesting. ‘Six Miles South Of Home’ features an extremely catchy and singalong verse/chorus structure which demands your attention – the kind of track which could easily take control of a digital music television channel near you. There’s not as much bravado as their US counterparts and, with no eye-liner in sight, these boys are instantly more likeable – cue ‘Save Yourself’ and ‘United By Fear’ as good examples of a band on top of their game.
By the time the lengthy and repetitive ‘#12’ comes round, you’ve got the impression that Dopamine have come up trumps with a record that may not change your life, but it may well stand out from a rather stale pack. It’s a pity that Welsh ’emo’ bands have all been generalised by the media – everyone’s a Funeral clone and that’s the end of that. There’s no doubt that Dopamine would be a lot bigger if this record had been released 18 months ago, but whilst there’s still a market for this sound (witness the sell-out Give It A Name fest for proof), bands like this can get away borrowing the sound of other bands, with their own twist, for a little bit longer yet.
www.myspace.com/dopamine
Golf
Paul