This Town Needs Guns

This Town Needs Guns

Written by: PP on 10/07/2008 11:00:03

Few bands are able to open their debut album with a track as strong as Oxford, UK based This Town Needs Guns on their self-titled debut album. \"26 Is Dancier Than 4\", like its title suggests, should induce you to put on your dancing shoes and move frantically to its ultra-technical, electrifying guitar lead, which seems to be going everywhere at the same time. The release notes for the album describe it the best: \"something that one 3-armed guitarist would make, aided by four 2-armed people\". If you then add a characteristic clean vocalist who isn\'t afraid of letting his passion show clearly on the record, you have an album sounding quite typically like Dance Gavin Dance or Minus The Bear, only without the screams of the former and the deep complexity of the latter.

The rest of the music is best described as math rock on an acoustic platform with an indie-flavored emo vocalist on the front. Retarded song titles such as \"Want To Come Back To My Room And Listen To Belle And Sebastian\" or \"Japanese Ultra-Violence In D-Minor (The Saddest Chord)\" make it easy to pigeonhole the band as \'scene\', if you will, which isn\'t such a bad thing considering most \'scene\' bands are incredible or at least close to being so on their debut albums. This Town Needs Guns shows that kind of potential without being able to capitalize on the momentum in all songs.

Although This Town Needs Guns starts their record strongly, the rest of the album lacks the same kind of technical punch as well as similarly desperation-filled choruses as the album opener. The pace is much slower and atmosphere much quieter, with soothing acoustic tracks like \"I\'ll Forget About You Throwing That Rock Cos That Dance Was Pretty Funny\" leading the band towards a somewhat different direction from the album opener - more acoustic, less chaotic...dare I say less interesting.

But from what I\'ve read, this album is a collection of all the songs the band has written to date intended for an Australian release (yeah, it\'s kind of weird!), so it shouldn\'t and can\'t be used as a clear indicator on exactly what these guys will do in the future. If it\'s as danceable, ultra-technical emo meets indie meets acoustic rock as the album opener, this band will quickly reach a cult status within the scene. Should they merely go the way of the more straight forward arrangements (on their complex scale, however) like \"It\'s Not True Rufus, Don\'t Listen To Th Hat\", they will fail to distinguish themselves from the gray mass of similar bands out there. But don\'t worry, \"This Town Needs Guns\" has plenty of great moments which seem to suggest the former.

7

Download: 26 Is Dancier Than 4
For the fans of: Dance Gavin Dance, Minus The Bear
Listen: Myspace

Release date 02.04.2008
Yellow Ghost

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