Sundayschool - This Swan Will Break Your Arm [EP]

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March 7, 2009, 02:23 AM

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Arghhhhhhhh!!!!! I tried to be a fair reviewer and gave this EP by Sundayschool a good few listens before sticking to my initial dismal reaction, but if anything those extra listens have probably done it even more damage than good.

I can see exactly what Sundayschool are trying to be, what mood they are trying to encapsulate and mostly what genre they want to belong to. It's obvious they are another band riding on the 90's resurge band wagon, but, in their defense I do think they are one of the few that genuinely appreciated that music back in the day. So I guess their intentions were good?!

Unfortunately the vocals are not. They irritated the fuck out of me; weak, put on, unnatural, out of tune, fake, OUT OF TUNE and they generally just made me want to smash something in frustration of being so irritated. It would have been easy to say that as a band, collectively, they were shit, but that simply isn't true. The guitars are actually quite interesting, they have a good few little hooks and riffs and generally a nice sound, but they just need to be developed more, thickened up a little, made a little less obvious with more complexity. I could definitely see some serious Smashing Pumpkins influences, especially in track 5, 'Rest Assured', and in some of their other songs you could spot a bit of Nirvana thrown in there too. But in a nutshell the music/songs sounded unfinished, half done.

The production of this EP is pretty bad too, however I was willing to put that aside as if it's an early demo/EP that kinda stuff can be expected; what I was looking to spot was if there was some real talent behind the poor production. That would be what I was making my judgment on, but really, nope. The lyrics were appalling, ("we're so indie we're on EMI"), and made even more noticeable by the (arghhhh!!) annoying vocals. If this band got a new vocalist, maybe some of the songs wouldn't be so bad, I could even live with the lyrics. I had even picked a singer for them, I thought Gavin Rossdale would have been a good candidate (obviously this is only possible in my fantasy band world), he could have sung those songs quite well, making them work a billion times more than they currently do. But, most likely the vocalist is the driving force behind the band and many of these songs, so this is even more unlikely to ever happen and with so many good new bands that are already clearly more talented with a lot more potential to offer, what would even be the point in trying to improve this when such drastic measures would need to be taken? There wouldn't be any point, as even if they got rid of the singer and made the music better it still may not be enough.

Sorry to say this Sundayschool, although you're music in some parts could possibly have something to offer, the majority of it drones on, sounds amateurish, whilst also pretentious, and not genuine. And really, unless you get Gavin Rossdale on board, I doubt I'll ever change my mind.

Also, track 4, “I think I've played my way into trouble again”, is possibly the most annoying song I've ever heard, followed closely by track 3, "Art".

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