The Struts, who formed in Derby in 2009, have the feeling of a band slightly out of time and their début album certainly harks back to the days of Britpop to quite a blatant extent, but there’s something a bit too polished about them to really convince me they’re the real deal. Indeed, a quick scan through the writing and production credits reveals the hands of Hedges & Butler (a duo who are known more for working with pop acts such as Ronan Keating, Joe McElderry and Steps), Joe Wilkinson (a songwriter behind hits by Union J, Alexandra Burke and One Direction) and ex-New Radicals songwriter Gregg Alexander. In other words, if you’re seeking the next big indie hope, The Struts may not be the band you’re looking for. However, that isn’t to say that the album is actually bad, that would be unfair. It’s all perfectly listenable, it just feel a little too generic and unchallenging. The phrase “cleverly marketed” comes to mind because “Everybody Wants” (again, quite a “clever” title) simply has too much of a commercial sheen at times and it just doesn’t feel like an indie band album. This is a record which seems to have been carefully devised with target audiences and radio play in mind, with quite a few experienced industry minds crafting every aspect of it. I bought this album mainly because of some rave live reviews (so at least they can really play) and after watching a couple of videos on YouTube. I actually feel a bit conned, if I’m honest.
Thing is, there are actually a handful of appealing, catchy songs on here. Opening track “Roll Up”, a deft composition with a big chorus that has more than a hint of Kaiser Chiefs is an impressive start to the album, “Could Have Been Me” is a likeable song which, if not for Luke Spiller’s engaging vocal delivery, would probably have been a big hit for the likes of McFly and “Black Swan” has the classy feel of a dead-cert hit. However, outside of those three songs, the album is a bit less easy to listen to. For anyone who has a broad knowledge of music over the last few decades, listening to The Struts’ début album turns into a game of trying to work out which song each Struts track sounds like (“My Machine”, for example, audaciously steals an entire riff from a well known Supergrass song) because, unfortunately, very little here sounds fresh and original. I hear Primal Scream, Kasabian, Queen… even Republica. Sadly, the lyrics are also tediously generic (girls, sex, cars), lack wit and do little to suggest that the band actually have anything to say. Still, whilst I dislike the premise and overall feel of this sheep in wolves’ clothing band, I can’t help but, annoyingly, like a few of their songs, because they’re well-crafted, enthusiastically performed slices of pop with a classic rock/indie influence (as calculated as it may be) and I’m not immune to appreciating an expertly-written pop song, as much as I resist them.
There is something about “Everybody Wants” which means that a younger audience who have a preference for guitar music and a more limited knowledge of all the bands this album has been “influenced” by will probably thoroughly enjoy this indie-by-numbers knockabout. I have no doubt that the songs here will appeal to many people and, given radio play, there is no reason why they shouldn’t be successful, but, in my opinion, they lack originality, there are big questions as to the band members’ songwriting talents, given the fact that they have employed professional songwriters to supply the material (with the old pop trick of adding the band’s songwriters’ names to each song to give the impression that they wrote everything) and the only song wholly written by members of the band that shows real promise is “Black Swan”. Quite honestly, it’s a pop album that many people will get a great deal of enjoyment out of, just like many people love Olly Murs, One Direction, McFly and the kind of other mainstream chart fodder I generally avoid like the plague, but I doubt that many people who like real indie music will get a lot of satisfaction out of this album. In fact, that sums up my most serious reservation about them; they are a record-company controlled pop act pretending to be an edgy indie band whereas they’re actually about as edgy as a mini Babybel… and sometimes almost as cheesy. Disappointing.
“Everybody Wants” The Struts was released on 28th July, 2014, and is out now on Future Records Ltd (under license to Virgin EMI Records, a division of Universal Music Operations).
Andy Sweeney, 31st July, 2014.
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