Wolf Gang – ‘Suego Faults’

Maybe next time

In ‘Suego Faults’’ near forty minutes the last thirty years of popular music is regurgitated all over the listener in a sweetly sick tonic that helplessly paralyses the listener with romantic platitudes so contrived and clichéd it’s a miracle any will escape unscathed. Lyrical imagery no doubt intended to appear epic in grandeur (see ‘Sun’, ‘Dawn’ and ‘NO ONE’) end up sounding so stock it’s practically chicken flavoured. Third number ‘Stay And Defend’ stands so close to Talking Heads’ timeless charmer ‘This Must Be The Place (Naïve Melody)’ in structure and phrasing the Wolf Gang boys might as well have covered it and thrown it at the end as a bonus track.

‘Back To Back’ conjures the Leon’s ‘Only By The Night’ period while the majority of the rest of the album is so indebted to MGMT it goes beyond humorous. This is most likely due to the latter’s producer, David Fridmann, being on board for this disappointing debut. All the winning charms that made his work with The Flaming Lips are apparent, the lush layers of synths and keys, but none of the edgy psychedelic song writing that brought acclaim. Sure this is a pop record, but that is no excuse to be unoriginal. Closure ‘Planets’ comes as a welcome relief rather than a joyous send off. Shame, maybe next time lads.

5/10

Words by Sam Walker-Smart

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