Chew On Something Else

Here’s a fact I am sure you all know: hype is a very bad thing. Attention is drawn to your band, but there are expectations to be met and you have to be really really good to get away with it. One can’t exactly call a band like Chew Lips a daring band: they don’t really run off on a boat to visit India and discover America, now do they? On the contrary, it’s like they still think the earth is flat. Their first songs tackle the some old indie-dance-whatever we all know so well. Sure, Solo and Salt Air are nicely executed pieces, but they are ordinary ones.

However popular they are, these two ones were left off the London-based trio’s debut Unicorn. Bold move, after all. And while the intro song Eight tricks you into believing there is so much more to this band (hence the absence of the said songs), mediocrity takes over again as soon as you get to the second track. In fact, the album is so mediocre the songs sound the same: same vocals that make you think of a fallen from grace Beth Ditto, same instrumentals that sound like a really washed out version of SMD’s Cruel Intentions (which wasn’t really one of SMD’s best), same chord shifts, same same same. They even try a bit of New Young Pony Club but it’s painfully obvious Chew Lips are a bunch of talentless copycats. And when they want to sound meaningful (the slower Piano Song and Too Much Talking), they end up being just risible.

It’s strange the trio decided to leave their debut songs off the record, given the fact that, well, at least then Chew Lips sounded like a band with some sort of potential. For, you see, Unicorn only tells us they should spare the world of yet another bland and unremarkable “indie” band and break up.

*Photo courtesy of Rough Trade