This review has been giving me a hell of a lot of grief from the first moment I listened to the CD. It’s obvious that that young trio have put their all into the production of the demo, with a nice understated quality to the packaging and an impressively rich sound running throughout the recording, but the fact is that Kerfew are simply not ready to step up to the plate. The entire CD smacks of inexperienced songwriting with my main qualm being that there is only one coherent song that flows from start to finish while the rest all feel stitched together and hugely disjointed.
Having said that, there are moments that suggest that all is not lost; frustratingly so when you consider how annoyingly poor the majority of ‘The Queen…’ is. The intro to ‘Next Question’ is a slow-burning stomp, calling to mind a poppier AFI and hinting at a real potential that never materialises. The opening bars of ‘Writing On The Wall’ are equally thrilling, a heavy riff that pounds along with the momentum of a truck but which dissolves into a maddeningly unimpressive verse section – a common theme for the whole demo.
I simply could not listen to the grimly self-indulgent ‘From This Blank Page’, which goes nowhere but takes over four minutes to revert to the same old chord sequence and hysterically whining vocals that sound like he’s singing though one nostril. With hayfever. In the middle of a field. At the height of summer. At midday. With someone blowing pollen into his face. The problem is that on their own, the verse is unspectacular while the chorus has a smidge of potential but when put together they do each other no favours because it feels like Kerfew were looking for a chorus to slide in and made do with whatever they could come up with in the least time possible.
Take the sneering ‘Automatic Destruction’ as an example – an energetic pop-rock number that wins points because of its directness and sense of understatement. There’s no fancy tricks, no off-the-wall ideas that don’t come off, simply a catchy vocal line and a beautifully simple guitar riff that succeeds precisely because it is uncomplicated and unpretentious. This is Kerfew at their best, showing off their talents with a cogent and naturalistic style that benefits this particular style of raw punk rock. When put next to ‘Self Portrait’ it shines even brighter because ‘…Portrait’s superfluous chorus takes a wholly unnecessary route towards bratty pop punk when the stripped-down verse was doing just fine on its own as an edgy exercise in brooding punk rock.
As much as it will surprise you, gentle reader, I’m not a malicious bastard that takes pleasure in giving a new band a less than favourable review. I don’t like doing it, and I’m sure they’re going to like me even less. But I’ve tried to at least bring to mind their positive points of which there are a few while offering constructive criticism…at least that was the plan. The thing is with Kerfew is that they could be good with a little more focus and direction but as it stands they’re just a annoyingly half-finished.
Ben
www.kerfew.co.uk