Is Pet Moon worth all the buzz? After seeing him last Tuesday at Electrowerkz in London, we say yes! Andrew Mears, former singer of Youthmovies, didn’t hide his intentions to become Britain’s next hotshot in pop music.
Pet Moon’ music is heavily influenced by the eighties. His songs are as catchy as a Pet Shop Boys’ Synth-Pop bus, coupled with the sweetness of Smokey Robinson. His chic look and expressive stage act also conspire to make you believe that Pet Moon is a pop idol from twenty-five years ago.
It was the passion in Andrew Mears vocals that blew me away. In ‘Superposition’ - a song Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe should be jealous of – he sang with so much sentiment we sympathised with him. The fact that Andrew easily can switch from a dark furious voice to softer and warmer tones makes him an amazing singer and entertainer. But the key to Pet Moon’s success can also be his weak point if he goes too far into high drama. Although watching him last Tuesday, I can only conclude he’s born to do this.
Compared with Pet Moon, Trophy Wife was slightly more timid. Although drummer Kit Monteith performed with intense, furious vigour and stole the show, singer Jody Prewett and keyboard player Ben Rimmer were quieter figures on stage. Trophy Wife played a tight set. The Oxford trio sound more uptempo live, through which their songs morphed into forward thinking dance tracks, you could see it as LCD Soundstytem playing some Talking Heads material.
However, the party truly started when Trophy Wife played their massive single ‘Microlite’, a floor filler that would fit in a late eighties Hacienda club night, before this massive single their songs simply resembled each other a little too much. Trophy Wife ended up with a loose cover of Joanna Newsom’s ‘The book of right-on’ - a brilliant idea, which shows how creative the band can be with the basic melody of a song. But as they are one of the most interesting new bands of the moment, we expected a bit more from Trophy Wife in general.
Words: Kasper-Jan Raeman
No comments:
Post a Comment