DEMOB HAPPY – ‘Dream Soda’
These boys are very well known in the Brighton music scene not just because their music totally storms but because they’re just generally stand up gents.
This new release was highly anticipated. After the release of their single Succubus the band flew into everyones ears at the speed of light. The downed tuned guitars hit you like a ton of very QOTSA feeling bricks. Matthew Marcantonio’s vocals raspy and gravely grab your attention after the ground shaking bass intro. The catchy melodies and clever and carefully placed guitar riffs make the song an instant repeater. A song you will never get out of your head but to be quite honest I wouldn’t want to.
This album flows effortlessly, the songs are placed just as you would want them to be. A stand out song from this is track 5, “Man You’re Wrong”. The country feeling guitar riff gives you a sense of zombie-like swagger. It puts you in a state where you can just calmly and happily listen to this song without being blown away by distortion and angst. The vocals on this track especially seem slightly varied from the rest of the album. They have a moody and unimpressed expression, not a feeling you get from the other tracks.
On the complete other side of the coin track 6 “Summer Cash In” is the jolliest and bounciest number by far. You can hear elements from the Beach Boys to Mac DeMarco. This is the contender for my favourite on the album.
The title track “Dream Soda” it just full on driving drums and sing along melodies. It’s heart racing and head nodding. Personally not my favourite on the album but definitely one of the most catchy. The drum drop out adds so much to the dynamic of the track, which would be relatively straight forward and ‘samey’ without it. The inviting chorus lyrics make it a song you can belt out at a house party when the liquor has hit.
“This album flows effortlessly, the songs are placed just as you would want them to be. A stand out song from this is track 5, “Man You’re Wrong”. The country feeling guitar riff gives you a sense of zombie-like swagger. It puts you in a state where you can just calmly and happily listen to this song without being blown away by distortion and angst.”
Within all the vocal takes you can hear influences from Kurt Cobain, conscious or not. But one song that embodies this influence totally is track 11 “Underneath Your Tree” it resembles the vocal take in “Something in the Way” completely, being that is such a powerful and iconic song it was brave of the Demob Happy boys to take so much impact from that. But I feel the psychedelic aspect of their work jumps out enough to keep the two songs far enough apart.
This body of work is overall like laying in a field in the late 70’s wearing something bell bottomed watching the sky go by with a kaleidoscope in your hands. Its dreamy and psychotropic but angry and forceful all at the same time. It’s an album that will definitely be my soundtrack for the foreseeable future.
Here from the chaps over on Spotify- http://hyperurl.co/DreamSodaSpotify
CD and Vinyl- www.demob-happy.com
Soundcloud- https://soundcloud.com/demob-happy/tracks
