This City

Originally posted on the 8th of May 2007

http://www.myspace.com/thiscitymusic

This City were a very interesting discovery for me, it happened one evening a few months ago at the Brighton Engine Room. I was there to see a band called RazorFace, and This City happened to be headlining. At first I didn’t take much notice. More boys in tight jeans with tattoos and lip piercings… big deal! As soon as they started playing though, my attention was drawn away from the conversation at hand and towards the stage. It’s hard to put your finger on exactly what it is, but this band have something that makes you really want to watch them.

So What Is It?

Its essentially Emo alternative indie rock, although This City prefer to refer to themselves as “Hardcore Pop” which isn’t actually a bad description. Take a disco beat, throw in a strat, some yelping, and you’re nearly there. Now, that doesn’t sound impressive, until you add the catchy choruses and frequency filling harmonies… THEN. It becomes a thing of beauty.

The Mates-Rates Song-For-Sale for me is definitely ‘Romantic’, which starts off with what could be any old intro for any old band, a high electric guitar riff and a lot of tomtoms, the song doesn’t really kick in till that first riff ends, and the song moves into the verse. This segment chops straight in with a disco beat that is so unbelievably good that I sometimes listen to the track just to hear the drum beat. How many songs can you say that about? The guitar riff that flows over the top is choppy, feels perfectly in tune with the beat, and is a real foot tapper. When Chris starts singing though, you realise that This City aren’t “just another Emo band” because, he doesn’t suffer from what I call “eyeliner syndrome”. Which translates roughly into any vocalist that feels the need to sing all his/her vocals in long drawn out notes with some sort of emotional attachment that tries to induce tears. Instead, he is aggressive, and energetic, he almost spits out his lyrics and commands attention. ‘Romantic’ then shifts smoothly into the chorus, where harmonies rain in, and guitar riffs get much more distorted. It’s exactly my cup of tea.

So what is it lacking?

For the type of music it is, it lacks very little. This City have very tight package now after having suffered from AWOL drummer syndrome for a good few months. (Their’ previous drummer is now the lead singer for hardcore band the Architects.) What they do lack, is commercial appeal – the interesting thing is that they’re not very far off the perfect mix. The proof of that is in the number of hits they’ve had on Myspace in a mere year of existence, in their recent radio 1 airtime, and reviews in both NME and Rocksound. If they could just tighten their songs a little for performance purposes, and start writing in a slightly more traditional structure, keeping their fiery passion firmly in place, they would have mass potential.

I’m not going to lie at this point; I think that this band are brilliant. It’s not just that they play good music, its that they’re fun to watch and to listen to. It’s a type of music that is hated by a lot of “traditional music fans” at the moment, and I think its time those people realised that U2 are dead and Elton John is shit. You have two choices: stay stuck in the 90’s, or listen to This City. I know which one I’m doing.