The Auteur - Hey! Watch This [Single]

Lab Records

Many people will debate the value of bands such as The Auteur, the value of any band that aspires to be Jimmy Eat World, but end up sounding more like Billy Eat Busted. The kind of band who aspire to have one of their songs feature on The Hills or some other such American poppycock. These bands think of themselves as artists but are just a wristband away from a boy band, so what possible worth can they honestly have?

Well here’s the thing, I don’t actually have a problem with these bands for the simple reason that they do have their place – in the record collection of anyone under the age of 16. I’m not nearly dishonest or cool enough to claim my record collection was anything other than laden with musical offal before I “saw the light” aged 17. For every Beatles record I owned in my youth, I had two Shakin Stevens records. For every Madonna 7 inch, I had 2 (much) Unlimited. No no no no no no no no no no no no indeed (it must have left some impression, I even remember how many no’s there were).

It’s all part of the musical journey that any young pup must go through before they arrive at Sigur Ros, and the bonus of bands such as The Auteur is that they at least play their own instruments, which may well inspire their fledgling fans to do the same. Sadly for The Auteur, their target audience don’t generally write music reviews that get published – so I’ll do it for them. Now to keep things fair I’ll say a few words myself, before handing over to 14 year old Auteur fan, Sam from Brighton (the band’s home town).

OK so the lead track, “Hey! Watch This”, is not as loud as the exclamation mark would suggest, but it’s pretty much everything fans of this genre would want. A genre that has been dominated by Americans so far could well be gate-crashed by The Auteur on this evidence. It’s as catchy as the flu, and if it stays with the world as long, the kids really will be alright; there’s not much cold comfort for everyone else though.

The next two tracks are demos, but they sound as polished as the lead track. “To Cut A Short Story Shorter” has enough “wo-ohs” to keep the chips off many an old block dancing around their bedroom, singing into the hairbrushes their fathers no longer need. “Trampoline” is more of the same...and you know what? This band are gonna be huge whether we like it or not. Good luck to them, I suppose.

Now for the bit you’ve all been waiting for. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Sam (also known as ‘TheAuterRulz14’).....

“OMG dis band is well gud n ne1 who sez anyfink els is a nob innit! Theyz proper buff 2 lolz!”