Leeds quartet Hawk Eyes must be wondering what they have to do to get a bit more attention. Last year’s ‘Ideas’ was the kind of rock record that superlatives were invented for. It was heavy, catchy and, most importantly, full of hugely inventive, well, ideas. It was all you could possibly have wanted from the group following their early releases.
Yet, as ‘That’s What This Is’ rolls into town, the band are still toiling in the lower leagues, despite grandiose predictions that they will step up to headline bigger stages in the very near future. On this evidence, Hawk Eyes are just getting better and better. Their craft has been honed to the point where they are an album or two further along the line in terms of development than their relatively short discography suggests.
On paper, the band’s sound hasn’t changed much from ‘Ideas’, but really that’s the point. There are few bands out there so confident that they can pull off tracks as subtly complex as the four here and make doing so sound like the most natural thing in the world.
It’s similar to what BiffyClyro were doing early in their career, but while Biffy sounded fantastically disjointed, Hawk Eyes meld all their off-kilter musicianship into beefy riff monsters that are far from inaccessible.
In fact, tracks like Never Never, Just Not Now and More Than a Million are prime examples of how, despite their prominent arty side, Hawk Eyes are actually bloody good at writing addictive alt-rock songs. Appropriately there’s also a certain swagger to things that recalls Therapy? during their most excitingly creative period in the mid-’90s.
Exciting, brave, interesting, intensely listenable. Hell, Hawk Eyes simply have to get big at some point. You’d best get involved now.
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