Vintage Kicks

King Geek

Written by: PP on 03/01/2012 02:31:32

Experimenting with different styles and influences on your debut album is fine. We've previously seen many examples where it has led into wonderful musical creations in both metal and conventional rock. But it is also an art form that is difficult to fully master, as Vintage Kicks demonstrate on their debut album "King Geek". It's an attitude-driven rock'n'roll album with influences flourishing from indie and punk alike, but because they are mashed together in a manner that feels both hurried and unfocused, the album eventually falls down into the category of an interesting experiment that doesn't entirely succeed in what it set out to do.

Now, there are two reasons as to why that doesn't happen. For starters, the album throws its weight around in screamed out punk rock, surf rock-esque sounds, and quirky indie rock in pretty much equal measure. You'll have a song like "Iron Fist" remind you of The Killers (and others from their scene), then immediately after "Jetti Jump" plays around with some mathy guitars and a post-hardcore esque chorus. And elsewhere we visit the musical territory of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and other quirky indie rockers like them. With a hefty dosage of rock'n'roll groove thrown in the mix.

Secondly, the songwriting is inconsistent. They have the ability to write some catchy tracks, such as the ones mentioned in this review, but they also have tracks which feel too raw, too unpolished, or frankly just less interesting. It is unclear what kind of band Vintage Kicks want to be in the end, and hence it's difficult to award them a rating higher than average at this point in their career.

6

Download: Gimme Gimme, Iron Fist, Jetti Jump
For the fans of: rock'n'roll powered quirky indie rock
Listen: Bandcamp

Release date 08.09.2011
Self-Released

Related Items | How we score?
Comments
comments powered by Disqus

Legal

© Copyright MMXXIV Rockfreaks.net.