Save Your Breath - Nothing Worth Having Comes Easy
Save Your Breath are the latest bunch of musical hotties to be exported from Wales and if you’re into pop-punk anthems delivered from a musical package of good-looking pretty boys, you’re well going to love this little lot.
So the offering is a few songs short of a full album - yes, I do know what an EP is - but I think I really need to get my hands on a full recording of theirs, because they are a bit bloody good!
The four boys from Newport, South Wales have already shared the stage with the likes of fellow Welshmen Funeral For A Friend and Set Your Goals, and look set for their run of good luck to continue if their debut is anything to go by.
The first ‘track’ xRYx Almost Died At A Foam Party is basically a 45 second musical introduction to the boys, and what do I get? A barrage of Americanised pop-punk that seems to be the love-child of a mass orgy between New Found Glory, FFAF, Simple Plan and Fall Out Boy. I bet that was a night to remember.
The second offering Holy Shit! Fortune Teller Miracle Fish! is your basic Americanised pop-rock song with glorious guitar riffs and melodic sing-along choruses, yet there’s something in there that makes them stand out, I can’t quite put my finger on it just yet, but I get the feeling this isn’t just another one of those here today, gone tomorrow copycat bands.
Up next is Not In The Mood For Kiwi which sounds a little bit like A Day To Remember, just without the screaming bits. Halfway through we have a sexy bit of shredding and some other haberdashery going on, but I love it already. I’m totally going on a one-woman campaign to get these lads on all my friends CD racks… I slagged Biffy Clyro about between my friends - and look at them now! So now it’s time for Save Your Breath.
I Am The Ticket is a song about death, but it’s wonderful intro makes me feel a little bit sexy, and David Webbs vocals, which resonate with Neil Starr of Attack! Attack!’s make my belly turn to jelly (although that could be the bag of wine gums I’ve just eaten.) I’ve still got two songs to go and I’m already loving these boys.
Anyway, I have the stamina to go the full length before I explode in a ball of excitement, and make it through You‘ve Got Lizard Blood with metaphorical Goosebumps on my skin, it is too hot in the office to make them protrude naturally you see. Anyway, this song, which I am told is about getting taken for a ride is possibly my least favourite song on the record (I do have to pick one!) but nevertheless, I will get on the Save Your Breath bus any day. Toot Toot!
Finally we have Rhys-O And The Legend Of The Big Phone, which I’m assuming is some kind of inside joke? It’s a great closing track, and is the longest of the bunch. The vocals are once again, flawless, and Christian Sondergaard get’s the chance to really thrash around on his drums whilst Tom Owen and Adam Parslow swan around making delicious guitar fancies.
The Never Giving Up†chant is bound to be something that is chanted back at them at gigs and festivals for years to come too. Good work boys!
The only criticism I have is that the album is a bunch of tracks with unnecessarily long names that I just don‘t get. But hey, if it worked for Panic! At The Disco, what goes to say that it cant work for these guys too?
Rating: 5/5 - An immense debut. When’s the full album out?
Skip To: Rhys-O And The Legend Of The Big Phone - They saved the best for last