Hold Fire - Power Cuts [Single]
 

Hold Fire are an upbeat indie band from Brighton, England. Their single "Power Cuts" kicks in and it reminds me a lot of Feeder in it's style and refrain. It's a decent track that is catchy enough to get me interested and leaving me eager to hear what's coming up however, instantly I am not too much of a fan of the blatantly obvious lyrical content. The production is good on this single and over the course of these two songs it is obvious that Hold Fire definitely have their own sound.

On their Myspace, Hold Fire claim to have had four previous releases. I personally don't feel a free EP of which only 30 copies were made really constitues a release does it? One of the aforementioned EPs only has two songs on it which to me makes it a single. Hopefully that means Hold Fire are in the studio producing their debut album because, it's easy to just keep releasing singles and EPs but a full album release is what really proves the men from the boys!!

The second track on this single "You'll Never Know" is a much weaker track making it easy to see why it was chosen as the B-Side and has a really annoying distorted vocal effect in the verses and a chorus that just doesn't grab me at all. The second verse contains some of the most lethargic sounding gang vocals I have ever heard. It's almost as if the guys weren't even having fun recording the gang vocals and just put them in the track because it's a popular thing to do these days. I am not a fan of this song at all and unfortunately for Hold Fire this track lowers my overall single rating dramatically. It's expected that a B-Side be a lower quality track than the A-Side but when the B-Side sounds like it was put together in a half assed way just to have a second track for a single then I am not a fan.

The coolest thing about this single is not the songs but the chosen release format. The single is being released on a 512MB Duracell Battary resembling USB stick. I have often thought it would be a good idea for bands to release on this format as even after you have grown sick of the tracks you still have a fully functioning memory stick you can take around with you on your travels. I have heard of bigger bands releasing on USB memory stick format but this is the first instance of a smaller band doing so. This single has the A and B Side and the music video all included in one easy to use package that will surely please all of the Hold Fire fans out there.

Gimmick packaging aside this Hold Fire single shows that they have the potential to be both a great band and a really shit one. If they concentrate more, and put more pashion into everything they are doing then this band could have some success in the British musical world as they have the right sound to fit right in. An album of "Power Cuts" quality tracks would get them a decent album on a decent label. An album of "You'll Never Know" quality tracks will see them releasing a limited edition run of their debut album of 30 copies - just like their other releases.

The choice is yours boys. It's sink or swim time.