Post War Glamour Girls - Tragic Loss; He Had Such a Lovely House (EP Review)
Thursday, 09 August 2012
Written by Ben Bland
Bristling like the offended persona of a mildly hammered Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Leeds based Post War Glamour Girls take the bruising post-punk of Australia’s greatest son and play it not so much with pent-up aggression as world weary frustration. Despair takes the lead here more than any other emotional state and, predictably, the preferred medium is embittered post-punk.
Perhaps Post War Glamour Girls should be derided for a lack of originality. The spectre of Cave is never far from their sound, especially in the vocals of frontman James T. Smith, and to pretend the band do anything other than take massive directional cues from The Bad Seeds is to idly deride the influence of one of the most important bands to ever exist. With elements of The Cure, Tom Waits and Neil Young also highly prevalent, perhaps it would be best, however, to credit Post War Glamour Girls rather than critique them for their sound. They are a band early in their career and, although it sounds similar to other artists, this EP really feels rather unique and special. They may wear their influences on their sleeve, but they take care to ensure that their music is a new interpretation of styles. The more one listens to this EP, the more of Post War Glamour Girl’s own distinctive personality seeps through from under the surface.
Maybe what sets them apart from their influences more than anything else is their sheer ambition. What is effectively a conceptual release, 'Tragic Loss; He Had Such a Lovely House', sounds deeply considered in almost every aspect. Post War Glamour Girls clearly know that the devil really is in the detail. Bands with this much ambition and clarity of scope certainly aren’t on the road to making repetitive rehashings of what has already been done before. Such widescreen thinking means that when, on highlight 'Tremor', Post War Glamour Girls implore “I want to be your very best friend”, one cannot help but think that, with more releases as good as this, they might well get pretty darn close to becoming so.
'Tragic Loss; He Had Such a Lovely House' is out now from Post War Glamour Girl’s bandcamp page.
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Perhaps Post War Glamour Girls should be derided for a lack of originality. The spectre of Cave is never far from their sound, especially in the vocals of frontman James T. Smith, and to pretend the band do anything other than take massive directional cues from The Bad Seeds is to idly deride the influence of one of the most important bands to ever exist. With elements of The Cure, Tom Waits and Neil Young also highly prevalent, perhaps it would be best, however, to credit Post War Glamour Girls rather than critique them for their sound. They are a band early in their career and, although it sounds similar to other artists, this EP really feels rather unique and special. They may wear their influences on their sleeve, but they take care to ensure that their music is a new interpretation of styles. The more one listens to this EP, the more of Post War Glamour Girl’s own distinctive personality seeps through from under the surface.
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