Donots - To Hell With Love [EP]

Solitary Man Records

August 15, 2009, 12:46 PM

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All six tracks on this 'To Hell With Love' EP also appear on German punk poppers Donots latest album 'Coma Chameleon'. That being said, 'To Hell With Love' is merely a promo taster and not an actual release as such. It's a nice introduction to Donots deal though and not what I was expecting when I saw the words 'German' and 'punk' in the same sentence. Everything is highly polished with the Southern California sheen that it aims for and it hits the cleaner, more tuneful end of the punk spectrum.

'Break My Stride' leads off with some nice Queens of the Stone Age style guitars that give cause for hope. The lyrics are kind of clunky but sung with a tuneful passion that gets angry, but never goes overboard. 'Pick Up The Pieces' and 'Headphones' (again leaning on old QOTSA guitar lines) carry on in the same vein never disappointing, but never quite firing you up either.

'Stop The Clocks' is a straight forward chart song that has as much to do with punk as your average Gomez song, which is a strange change of pace but not completely unwelcome. It actually runs off the same beat/guitar rhythm as Blur's 'Coffee and TV' and that is never a bad thing.

Then 'This Is Not A Drill' sees Donots back to the harder sound and in good form. There is a danger of Donots slipping into Good Charlotte territory on 'Anything' with its bland chorus which makes for an unsatisfactory end to the EP. Even so, Donots have spent their time well over the past fifteen years honing their sound. This is a highly professional, accomplished and well put together collection of songs that bode well for the full length album.

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