It may be an old and clichéd adage but it’s forever a true one: never judge a book by its cover. Or in this case, never judge a band by its name or a record by its title. Hey! Alaska is a truly awful name. ‘The Colour, The Shade’, for all its Foo Fighters aping, isn’t a particularly endearing EP title. All told that doesn’t make for the strongest of introductions to a band. But remember, we’re not judging on preconceptions (honestly).
As it goes, the Middlesborough sextet dusts-off any name based presumptions pretty quickly, simply by being a bit good. A first spin of this five tracker (available for free download from the bands MySpace page) brings to mind Funeral For A Friend, a hark back to 2003-5 and that post-hardcore/emo splurge. ‘The Colour, The Shade’ (urgh) doesn’t stop there. It’s grounded as much in today’s pop-punk/pop-rock/pretend hardcore bracket, a sound suitable to a bill featuring the likes of Deaf Havana.
Musically, at times this is pretty slick. Good guitar lines, decent drumming, and a solid main (read: melodic) vocal accompany a well structured (if not pioneering) song structure. Opener ‘Sesions’ makes for the strongest of the songs on offer here, ticking the above boxes whilst proving to be a nice introduction to the band. Even the second/guttural vocal (which is one of the bugbears across the release; sometimes it just seems too comical – I’m looking at you ‘In Oceans’) on this track acceptably accompanies its main counterpart.
On the downside, across the EP, the usage of keys isn’t all that convincing. I’m not certain they add anything extra and stripping this back to a rawer sound might make for interesting listening. There’s also not all that much to underscore the band from its counterparts, although having a decent recording is better than some on the scene. Trust me.
Ultimately, ‘The Colour, The Shade’ makes for a decent enough 20 minutes of listening, and you can’t argue with the price-tag. Give this one a couple of spins; you might like it. Promising stuff.
Alex