Tell it to the Marines are a 5 piece pop punk/ambient band from the East coast of England who claim to have been influenced by only playing hometown shows in Bury St Edmonds. There’s distinct Brand New-isms on this five-tracker, not directly, but certainly in terms of influence. There are choppy drums and dreamy, atmospheric guitar riffs and, in places anyway, this is pretty good stuff. The five songs all have highlights and there’s not one bad track. ‘Flare Guns’ is a particular highlight, as is ‘Fireworks‘.
My only issue is that the songs are often too long and could do with 50-60 seconds shaving off them; the band try and mix the ambient with the melodic and while that works in places, at times it makes the tracks drag on – ‘Flare Guns’ could easily be a wonderful pop song with atmospheric bits, but it drags. The instrumental bit 3 and a half minutes in could be ditched to tighten it up – maybe it’s just me but I think if the band ditched the overblown musical bits they’d sound better for it.
The band claim to be speaking to labels about releasing this EP and that wouldn’t surprise me. TITTM clearly have talent in abundance and that’s showcased on this record. For me it’s not consistent enough and needs refining if the band are to take it to the next level. But for a first record, this is good stuff and well worth a listen.