I’ve never had the pleasure of reviewing The Southern Cradle before; it seems that everyone else always calls first dibs on their CD whenever a new one arrives. I know Jay, when he was an @PT, and more recently Spud have been big fans of this band for quite some time and ‘Painting Shadows’ just continues on the good work. I’m as bemused as they are as to why this band remain unsigned. They’re like a very British Get Up Kids, kind of mixed with Dugong I suppose. There’s a bit of The Promise Ring in there as well. Y’know, those good bands.
This four-track EP contains four great songs. There’s a distinct ‘Four Minute Mile’-esque sound to ‘Take Me Down’ and the vocals do have that kind of Matt Pryor ‘broken’ quality to them; the sound of a voice breaking to the point where you know the vocalist means every single word. There’s a really nice guitar tone to ‘Wilmington’, which actually reminds me of another band that I can’t quite put my finger on. Needless to say, The Southern Cradle are consistently great and certainly one of the best UK bands around right now.