If I’m honest, I’m not entirely sure why The March Hares have sent their demo EPs into Punktastic to review – after all they sound more like The Smiths than New Found Glory and probably won’t appeal to some of our readers. They certainly don’t appeal to me. It’s not that these London boys are particularly bad at what they do – far from it really – it’s just really not my thing. Now I’m sure there will be the usual comments after this release saying ‘why didn’t you pass it on to review?’ but the simple fact is that we don’t have the time to listen to every CD we receive, decide if we like it or not and then send it on to someone else. This is particularly the case when the CD in question is possibly something we could decline to review anyway.
While a lot of bands have stated The Smiths and Morrisey are huge influences (I’m looking at you, Brand New), this is a little too close to the bone for me. On ‘The Gambler’ the vocals are far, far too close to The Smiths, so it’s no surprise to read the band are influenced by The Beatles, Interpol and, of course, Mazza and co. I guess people who like any of those bands will enjoy this more than I did. As I said, it’s not that the band are particularly bad, it’s just not something I particularly enjoy listening to. And for that, half marks seems the only fitting score I can give.
www.themarchhares.com
Paul