LAST APPROACH

FROM ME TO YOU

Self Released 2011

This is modern rock with a lot of promise and though I always find EPs hard to review this one seems to tell the story of a band that could really go somewhere. It ain’t perfect, and the production doesn’t quite do the songs full justice – at times the guitar seems a little lost, but that’s about all you can really say that detracts from what is a quality release.

There are enough discernable influences in Last Approach’s mix to give them a pretty original sound. The combination of some decent guitar licks and some great melodies are part Coldplay, part Foos, part Feeder with a hint of maybe a band like the Ataris. I don’t hear the Bon Jovi or Eagles that some reviewers are mooting at all. 

Of the tracks here it’s the frenetic opener ‘Don’t Carry’ that is perhaps the most original slab of melodic punk-pop. It’s cool and gets the foot tapping. ‘Freaking Out’ is as heavy as we get and a nice song, juxtaposed with the slower more Colplayesque ‘Drift’. To be honest the hot/cold fast/slow nature can work two ways, first time I threw this on I thought this is a band that really doesn’t know what it wants to be, like dangling different bait into the water and seeing what bites. After a few listens I’m still not convinced but put it more down to flexibility.  It’s the other really upbeat song ‘Looking Over My Shoulder’ that I enjoyed most though and I hope that the spark of songs like this won’t get lost.

Closer ‘It’s Too Late’ acoustic intro morphs into what is perhaps the most introspective delicate moment here and probably the most likely path to recognition. They sound comfortable in that skin.

I like it.   

We also have two copies of the EP, fully signed by the band, to a random two readers who can tell us the country Last Approach hail from. Just e-mail mark@therockpit.net Entries close 30th November 2011.  

By Leslie Phillips