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Review: 'ELWINS, THE'
'Play For Keeps'   

-  Label: 'Affairs Of The Heart'
-  Genre: 'Indie' -  Release Date: '23rd March 2015'

Our Rating:
Having reviewed a single from this band recently, I was interested to see if they could maintain their pop power and quality across the course of an album and the answer is an emphatic yes.

Canadians The Elwins are so good at writing catchy, indie pop songs that you have to wonder how they manage it? Is this the result of hours of practice and study or simply innate ability?

The good thing about The Elwins is there is a bit of meat on the bones. They do have decent lyrics to go with their classic hooks. They start preceedings with ‘Bubble’ and already I feel euphoric. ‘It Ain’t Over Til It’s Over’ utilises bossa nova drum machine to set the scene before bursting into a sing-a-long chorus. This is something that happens quite a lot on this album. ‘Bringing Out The Shoulders’ is my absolute favourite. Not least because of the off-beat hi-hat that probably took three weeks to produce and somehow manages to take the whole track to another level. “How much longer/will I have to wander/how much longer/I just want to go home”. And the hooks pile up one on top of the other.

‘You Have Me’ screams cross-generational smash. ‘Off The Wall’ adds some guitar overdrive to the mix. ‘Backing Up’ has a tinge of regret about it and this makes it endearing. ‘Sexual Intellectual’ has the vocals riding high in the chorus mix for a powerful concoction. ‘Shining Star’ is the final track and it slows things down just enough to provide a reflective point for the whole album and the strings no doubt help this.

If it’s clean and crisply produced, tight, radio friendly pop music that you like then you should probably try this album. I have and I quite liked it.              
  author: Leo Newbiggin

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ELWINS, THE - Play For Keeps