Album Details

• Artist: International Trust
• EP:
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
• Label: Stunted
• Year of Release: 2008
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: archelon on 2009-11-09

International Trust are five lads from Leeds, and it's easy to see throughout this EP. Everything about the music stinks of that northern city, from the chanted chorus to the guitar hooks, which are power pop at it's finest. They have managed to distill the purest urges of human aural pleasure and spread them evenly throughout the record - the drum solo that kicks off 'Disneyland', for instance, is nothing short of musical heroin.

Sure their keyboard sound is pure Frank Sidebottom circa Remote Control, and the guitar/bass/drums arrangement feels pretty standard but there is something in the biting Art Brut style lyrics that crystallises the soundscape. Vocalist Neil Hannon climbs aboard the current wave of celebrity for 'Bruce Lee': "This is the position / The height of my ambition / I admit I'm on a mission to be rich and famous". And such is life. Footballers are hailed as the new George Best, the new Maradona. Bands are the new Nirvana, the new Strokes. Why try to be yourself when there's an easier shortcut? Why not become the new Bruce Lee? After all, you're convinced that you're "the only one to do him justice".

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