SEKS

HARDER THAN YOU

RELEASED 2011

This is a strange album with a sound that is both unique and familiar…  Sometimes the best thing about never reading other people’s reviews before I listen is getting something like this served cold! After reading a few reviews to be honest I’m not completely sure I’ve been listening to the same album!

“Rich Girl” has a touch of Reckless Love to it but less glossy and produced. It’s a great  song but only really scratches the surface of the sound of a band that I still can’t decide if they are mad or geniuses, deceptively simple structures layered with influences from seventies New York New Wave to traditional party rock to Billy Bragg anyone? …

“On the Inside” replete with wolf calls has something of Halen and the same Reckless Love flavour, it’s gloriously unadorned rock, simple and naïve and that’s part of its endearing charm, with the vibe of bands like the Darkness but with somehow a New York flavour (yes I do know they are from Norway)…

“Something to Believe in” also has that summery feel of early Halen, but the screams seem somehow self-conscious which again set it aside. Vocals are also almost New York New Wave bordering on someone like the B-52s, it’s hard to describe but somehow it works.

“Charlemagne” has lyrics out of school boy metal with a sound that borders on madness but somehow it clicks into place, it’s like someone took a tried and tested metal structure and threw in some touches of West Coast seventies light airiness just for the shits and giggles…

“Royal Nights” again has that simplicity and big chorus of bands like Reckless Love but with a vibe that again recalls the pop punk of the early eighties. Is it pop? Is it rock? It’s hard to tell, depends on how loud you play it I guess!

  
Oh a ballad? Well “Hanging On” should be more straight forward then? Of course not! It comes across structured like Billy Bragg meets TPOH. This is just weird, but strangely draws you in…

The guitars that open “Lick You Up” scream rock but again the vocals kick in and we’re in some other place, more Moe Berg than Winger but there’s the essence of both!

“I Wanna Be You Bitch” surely must clear things up? A blistering riff and wails open a song that owes more than something to Iggy Pop and is thankfully somewhat more of a straightforward rocker!  I love it.

“Forever” is another great song that picks pop above rock and sounds like a track out of time. I guess you could call it a ballad or a paean to wanting that girl to look at you, it definitely hits the TPOH button. Very cool. 

“Get Out Now” and “Rock Me” are probably two of the best tracks on here and definitely rock, the former like a punky Darkness; the latter like more traditional sleaze. It’s the vocals though again that gives it that something extra like the Darkness meets The Dolls were that sonically possible!

And then when I think I’m safe just to take me out of my short-lived comfort zone “Not far from Shallow Water” that closes proceedings could be an early eighties UK alternative pop tune.

At the end of the day I guess if you love the flavour of rock but are worried about what the neighbours might think, put this on, they’ll be stunned into silence. If you are looking for a band that on paper does party rock but aurally has a uniqueness that is hard to put a finger on – this may well be one to give a listen…

Definitely the hardest album to categorise of the year! I’m still confused, but I think I like it! I have to interview these guys! Madness!

By Mark Diggins