The issue with gathering alot of buzz as a band is that eventually you have to live up to the hype and prove your worth to an industry that has put its faith behind your raw skills and glimpses of promise. We Have Band are that band and 2 years ago they spawned that hype. Fresh off a Kitsune 6 compilation the electro-disco-indie-pop trio were cemented as purveyors of dance-floor friendly singles and spawned a string of well received remixes.
WHB is the bands debut album and the cumilation of a 2 years on the road and in the studio; its just a shame that the hard work doesn’t show through. The band have plenty of ideas, plenty of talent and when they put their mind to it they produce some genuinely exciting tracks; the Radiohead-esq ‘Buffet’ is a great down tempo, brooding number that is in stark contrast to earlier output. Alot of the album plays by the Kitsune rulebook and the tracks become more and more generic as the album progresses. The oversimplified indie-disco is even present in the lead single ‘Divisive’ – dancefloor value aside, the track advances no more in its entire three-and-a-half minutes than it does in the first 30 seconds. There is no rise and fall, no twists or changes, a problem that heavily hampered fellow Kitsune alumni Delphic’s debut album.
WHB is an album full of promise, ideas and charm but sadly lacks in structure and stand-out tunes. If they can combat this the band will go far and maybe rise above the indie-dance obscurity they have sunk themselves into.
We Have Band is out now on Naive. View the brilliant video for last summer’s single ‘You Came Out’ below.
Bianca
April 26, 2010
I must say, Spot “fucking” on.