The first name on the Shadowcops‘ list of influences is The Wildhearts. After the very dodgy intro, comes ‘Los Olvidados’ which sounds more like The Wildhearts than The Wildhearts do. Hmm.
Anyway, track 3 ‘Crushed under foot’ is a big improvement. Despite the rather flat and lifeless vocals in the first minute, I thought this was reasonable. It moves towards a sort of early Foo Fighter-ish sound – building guitars which never quite drag you over any threshold and just flow quite nicely. ‘Permanent’ is a shoutier yet almost more rock & roll affair in terms of the guitar work, but the vocals (again, a little weak) veer off in the very general direction of melodic hardcore.
There’s nothing about this record that particularly excites me, but it’s executed fairly well. Vocals, I’m afraid, are consistently a weak point. They need to be slightly higher in the mix and have a bit more ‘oomph’ behind them – as it is they’re too relaxed and have no particular style about them. That said, this record as a whole is honest, unashamed and totally unpretentious, and thus perhaps worthy of a look.
www.myspace.com/theshadowcops
Spud