Blood Red Shoes feel like they’ve been around forever don’t they?! Well a bit like Wayne Rooney in that sense, they haven’t actually. Hitting the scene back in 2006/7, they made musical waves with singles Stitch Me Back and A.D.H.D, promising lovely big things to the NME’s New Music Tour crowd. Rather thankfully for the band, comparisons with the Shrek-headed footballer end there, as second album Fire Like This is at least a bit more alluring and a less sweaty joining of souls than an evening with Mr Colleen.
Out on V2 records, this two-piece alt-rock band offer up a mix match of post-punky frustration and angst that could worryingly be more at home in an angry middle-class teenager’s bedroom, than it does from two musicians who are in their twenties. But produced by Mark Crossley (Foals, The Enemy, Arctic Monkeys) Fire Like This, attempts to sit somewhere between Bombay Bicycle Club and Nine Back Alps. Unashamedly wearing colours of influence on their dirty sleeves, Laura-Mary Carter and Steven Ansell are clearly fans of early 90s grunge and all its murky thumping guitars.
First single released from the album, Light It Up, is unmistakably indie-pop in verse and tone…until the chorus that is; where “Light It Up” is screamed so loud its sound is splattered against your memory cells. Opening track Don’t Ask throws you in at the deep end, no toe dipping to adjust, just pelvic thrusting guitars and in your face unashamed attitude. Their hands and the scruff of your neck combine, as “don’t ask this time; don’t ask the reasons why, started on two feet but ended on your knees” reduces unstoppable head banging and irresistible likeability.
As Count Me Out stomps into view, Laura-Mary’s softer vocals are played off against Steve’s Wombats-like voice; drawing an unavoidable comparison with The Kills, as duo male-female singing and darker chords clunk away on your sub-conscience. Though where Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince revel in being chaotically in sync; Blood Red Shoes are not. Heartsink is a fast paced sprint on moody bass and Bloc Party drum beats, but it runs in annoying circles, never quite getting to a satisfying finish line. Similarly, Is It Happening Again? leans on Carter’s bitingly strong voice, rightfully hoisted up like a crowd surfer at a gig with pride above the powerful strikes of the guitars that lead to a flimsy chorus, losing her in the midst of shouty tedium.
Plot the album track-list on a graph and nothing short of a mountain range will take shape. Songs like the slow building and atmospheric When We Wake or lively opener Don’t Ask suggest that there’s more to Blood Red Shoes, but there are too many shoulder shruggers to really have a lasting effect. Take it or leave it doesn’t quite suit Fire Like This, unfortunately falling for take some, leave most, instead.
Stereoboard Rating: 2.5/5.
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