Being one of the NME’s bright young things can often alienate bands from the unerground scene they look to attract, but in the case of Yourcodenameis:Milo ‘fame’ has come rather quickly. Seemingly snapped up out of relative obscurity by Polydor subsidiary Fiction, the band were launched off Stateside to record with uber-producer Steve Albini. On top of that they’ve managed score some choice support slots too, gathering some half-decent reviews along the way. But are they any good, or are they just another of those hyped next-big-things?
Well there’s certainly enough here to suggest the band have something that sticks out and warrants further inspection, even if they’re not the finished article just yet. …Milo take influence from bands such as Refused and the off-kilter ‘emo’ bands that fuse time changes and angular guitars with plenty of vocal melodies, and on tracks such as ‘All Roads To Fault’ and the awesome ‘The Problem’, everything comes together really well. Infact it bodes extremely well indeed. Sadly over the course of seven tracks this momentum cannot be carried on and the EP runs out of steam a bit. ‘Fourthree’ is impressive for not following the quiet/loud rulebook that the record tends to stick to, which tends to plague ‘Lions, Then the Donkeys’, even if it does rock like the proverbial bastard.
The teacher’s report card says that …Milo are one of the best in the class, but more work is needed if they hope to make the top. A B would be about the right grade should this record turn into an essay – the argument’s pretty good, but there’s too much superfluous waffle and obvious points…
www.yourcodenameismilo.com
Fiction Records
paul