The London-based five piece get their name from an amalgam of co-singers and songwriters David Talent and Bill Barratt.
Their sound is a blend of Thin Lizzy meets The Waterboys which they somewhat misleadingly label as "dirty folk".
Matt the fiddler is their secret weapon although one instrument does not a folk band make and the influence rough and ready Indie-rock is also obvious.
The tracks on this EP are:
Prairie Wolves (4.01)
They Break Bones (4.26)
Trouble Never Comes Alone (3.00)
Tubes/Wires (4.09)
Prairie Wolves is the best of the four with dry , raspy vocals that remind me of younger Rod Stewart as they belt out the chorus ("My oh my you're looking old").
They Break Bones lurches towards a ramshackle version of Whisky In The Jar while Trouble Never Comes Alone is full of desperate pleading "I tried to cry, I tried with all my might" .
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By the time they reach Tubes/Wires they are ready to say "take me home"
"For us it's all about passion" the band have declared but this intensity is not really matched by the quality of these four songs.
There's a sense of trying a bit too hard to convince us just how tortured their souls are and I can't help feeling these songs would sound more heartfelt if they were quieter.
Instead, they prefer rousing finales as if forever conscious of the need to drown out the noise from the bar.
These might work as rousing sing-alongs in a small club venue but on disc the effect is of straining too hard to make an impression.
Billy Vincent's Website
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