Have A Go Hero hail from Leicester and, in their own words, are “four friends from England blasting out emo-hardcore melodies with a pop twist.” They’re not far off, although HAGH to suffer from a little identity crisis at times. Over the space of the five songs on this EP, the band reference bands such as Brand New, then Ash and in the final song even bands like Audio Karate. It’s a decent mix and for the most part the songs the band have penned are incredibly clever and well structured. Infact, I’d go as far as saying the songwriting is as good as any unsigned band I’ve come across in recent months. But, and it’s a big but, the cleverness in the songs themselves are not reflected in the performance – and it is this which ultimately poses the problem. For all the thought that has gone into putting the tracks together – and there are some big choruses here – the vocals are at times scratchy and the guitar tones sound like they’re coming from a very tiny, and tinny, amplifier. The mix is pretty shoddy too, leaving an unnatural balance which for me ruins the tracks.
It’s why this band can only look back on this release as a massive opportunity missed. Opener ‘Shut Your Eyes Beneath The Lights‘ comes across like old-school Brand New, but is ruined by a poor, croaky vocal and, during the verses, some dodgy guitar work. There’s a bum note or two, which is a shame because the song itself is well thought out and structured. The choruses throughout this record border on being epic, but the standard of the musicianship nearly always lets it down. It’s perhaps only on ‘Straight Lines‘ that the band get it right sound-wise – yet this isn’t their strongest song.
Have A Go Hero is certainly a band to keep an eye on – the songs here are very strong and with better production and mixing justice would almost be done. The best advice I can give the band is to lock themselves away in a practice room for six months and really work on erasing the sloppyness. If they can do that, and scrape together some pennies for studio time and a good producer, they could go far.
www.haveagohero.co.uk
Paul