I stumbled upon The Watchers playing at last year’s Galtres Festival near York, playing one of the smaller stages, and in truth I’d only gone into a tent stage for some respite from the rain and quagmire outside. It was a fortuitous twist of fate, because they left me stunned.
A year on, and they’re finally about to unveil their debut single release. You certainly can’t accuse them of rushing things, and it’s a strategy that’s paid off as the songs have had time to gestate and now emerge fully formed. ‘Cut the Ribbon’ melds the kind of straight ahead post-punk rock of (very) early U2 – without the politics and the pomp – with the slow-burning interwoven guitar chimes of I Like Trains to create something that’s actually worthy of the description ‘anthemic’.
Its counterpart, ‘Every Night I Look Strong’, might to all intents and purposes be a fairly direct indie rock number, but it’s neatly executed and has an underlying urgency that raises it above the endless morass of landfill indie.
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Accessible and melodic, these two cuts might not hit with the kind of impact as my first encounter with the band, but I doubt that’s a problem: they sound like a big venue band with mass appeal, and if the single wins them an audience even half the size they deserve, they’ll absolutely slay ‘em all with the live show. Ones to watch, indeed.
The Watchers Online
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