It seems like every young British rock band you encounter have been described as being “destined for greatness” by someone or other. Basingstoke youngsters Enjoy Destroy may just be the real deal – they were good enough to tempt Feeder’s Grant Nicholas into the studio as co-producer on Little Dreams, their début album.
It’s easy to hear what turned Grant’s head; while they’re far from being clones of his day-job band, the epic fragility of Enjoy Destroy’s work rings with the same emotional sensibilities. Throwing aside over-wrought MySpace wrist-cutting drama, Little Dreams is full of something that has been missing from indie rock for some time – honesty.
Perhaps it’s a function of their youth – Enjoy Destroy aren’t even in their twenties yet, so perhaps they haven’t had the chance to pick up the cynical attitudes of the haircut heroes. But listening to Little Dreams should make you hope they never do; frontman Freddie’s Buckley-esque voice would be wasted on nasal histrionics and hand-wringing angst.
Nor do the band feel the need for overdosing on distortion or fretwank. The songs on Little Dreams are well crafted, lean and muscular beyond their years, catchy and energetic without falling into the saccharine trap of bubblegum pop. And they’re not a one trick pony, either; their material ranges from full throttle rock-outs like “Screamer”, through the accessible punk of “Mactier”, to the heartfelt delicacy of album closer “Hospital Bed” - the latter featuring lyrics that discuss mortality in a way that should make songwriters twice their age snap their pencils in envy.
What you don’t get is innovation, or quick-sell genre stylings. Enjoy Destroy’s sound bears more than a passing resemblance to the less corrosive end of emo and pop-punk, but the songwriting and structural work is much closer to intelligent and insightful material of the British post-hardcore scene or the indie rock bands of the late nineties. It’s a combination that makes little sense on paper, but perfect sense in your ears. I think we’ll be hearing a lot more from Enjoy Destroy in years to come – as long as they don’t grow up too soon.
(Enjoy Destroy will be touring the UK and Europe as support for Alter Bridge in January and February of 2008)
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Posted in Music reviews |
Tags: Enjoy Destroy, Little Dreams, rock
