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Spy Catcher

Honesty

Written by: TL on 12/08/2011 01:13:49

Seeing the bandname Spy Catcher pop up in the British music press recently, I soon decided to check out the quintet's debut album "Honesty", which was graded 9/10 in my household magazine Rock Sound. And listening to the twelve tracks on offer, it's soon easy to see why people are getting excited about these guys, as their music, although essentially punk-rock, is catchier and more diverse than most bands from that genre can boast of.

Starting out with a sound just as heavy on organ keys as on guitar riffs, the band initially impresses with album stand outs "Don't Like People" and "Remember Where You Were When Michael Jackson Died", both of which are proper Gaslight Anthem-ish... erhh.. anthems. Whatever impression you get from them however, is soon confused, as "Reason To Breathe" starts out like Radiohead and ends like post-rock, while "There Is No Light" instigates a recurring use of elements that wouldn't sound out of place on a Jimmy Eat World record. Through it all, singer Steve Sears binds the sound together with his rough, soul-ful croon, which again draws ones thoughts towards Gaslight Anthem's Brian Fallon, and the playful versatility evident already here at the halfway mark, is quite enought to make "Honesty" an interesting listen already.

I do have one lingering problem with the record after quite a solid number of listens, and that is that it continually strikes me as a bit imbalanced. It may be a consequence of starting out with such strong and catchy songs as "Don't Like People" and "Remember Where You Were When Michael Jackson Died", yet while I certainly don't suggest that the band should aim for writing anthems only, the songs that follow does seem to get progressively less memorable. Many of them are recognizable and somewhat catchy in their own right, but in the scheme of things, they do seem less awesome than the best cuts on the disc. That being said, there's still no denying that "Honesty" is a record worth making note of, and Spy Catcher a band worth keeping an eye on, because if they can continue to mix punk-rock up as much as here, while maybe finding a slightly firmer grasp of the good hooks, then they'll soon be the sort of best kept secret you should make sure to be in on.

Download: Don't Like People, Remember Where You Were When Michael Jackson Died, Nobody Listens, Rock Is Cursed
For The Fans Of: The Gaslight Anthem, Against Me ('s newer stuff), Jimmy Eat World-meets-Hot Water Music
Listen: myspace.com/spycatchers

Release Date 27.06.2011
Dreamt Music/Facedown Records