Band Done Average

This one caused some pretty epic debate about the nature and role of criticism. If you want to take a look at the various arguments have a snoop at the www.oxfordbands.com archives. Or, to save time, you could just agree with me, becuase I'm right.

BOY DID GOOD – ENEMIES & FRIENDS (demo)

Irate musicians will often attack a bad review for the lack of “constructive criticism”, which seems to be a serious misreading of the function of sites like this. Surely critics aren’t writing for the benefit of the artists (who really ought to just jack it in if they don’t already think their work is excellent), but for our peers, other potential listeners. So, although it may come up in the course of proceedings, how to make music better is of less importance to us than explaining what’s wrong in the first place. Besides, the easiest way to make most God forsaken demos better is simply to press Eject and then try to forget the whole sorry affair.

All of which preamble sounds worrying like the buffer zone before a complete critical disembowelling for the execrably named Boy Did Good, but the squeamish amongst you can rest assured that this won’t happen. What we’re getting at is wondering whether, in this case, we have any real connection with our peers at all. We suppose the pertinent question is, “Do you want to hear some average, but not unpleasant, indie rocking?” If the answer’s “Yes please”, then Boy Did Good are the ones for you; if not…well, let’s leave them to it, it’s a pretty harmless occupation, all things considered.

If you want to know what flavours of not unpleasant indie rocking BDG trade in, we can tell you that “Characters & Pieces” has a skipping beat that reminds us a little of the baggy era, without the stoned charm, and that The Arctic Monkeys and The Kaiser Chiefs are momentarily brought to mind. With the exception of some incredibly sludgy, almost dubstep style, bass interjections, the song has very little to claim your attention, though there may be some foot tapping in evidence.

“That Girl Is Dangerous” starts more promisingly, with a tinny one chord strum, some more suet bass and thumping toms; just when it threatens to become hypnotically heavy, it steps up into a forgettable new wave trot, and our mind starts to wander once again. The rhythmic playing throughout the demo is very tight, the vocals are perfectly acceptable, if lacking in character, and there are some interesting breaks, fills and tacets, but the song in its entirety is as unimposing as the clichéd femme fatale lyrics.

A comparable tom pattern underpins “You, Me & The Other Three”, which uses a similar alternating rhythm guitar trick to the last tune. In fact, a couple of shimmering chords aside, this is just the last song remade from another perspective, as we learn that “that boy is trouble”. Something average remade less interestingly with the sex roles inverted, what does that remind us of? Oh, yes, Grease II.

If BDG want some of that mythical constructive criticism, it all depends on what they want to achieve. If they want to be a world class band of professional musicians, we’d encourage them to think about every single note they play and lyric they write, and immediately excise anything that sounds threadbare and second hand. Eventually, after much graft, they may come up with something exciting. If they just want to have a laugh, play some gigs here and there, and sink some beers, then we’ve nothing to add: it’s all fine. Keep at it. Hell, it’s probably alright live. Not sure we’ll be making the pilgrimage to Reading to find out, however.