Auction for the Promise Club - One EP


Auction for the Promise Club, a three piece from St Agnes Cornwall, comprising of Zoe White-Chambers, Perran Tremewan and Toby White-Chambers seem to have been promising their debut EP for such a long time that I was wondering if it would ever actually arrive, but here it is.

Recorded at Abbey Road studios, the first thought on this four track EP is that production wise it is slick, glossy and obviously professional. While for most this is a great thing, there is a part of me that thinks Auction for the Promise Club might have benefitted from letting a live, rawer sound touch upon the release but that’s me being lo-fi and picky I’m sure.

The two opening tracks, Dancer (Running in the Dust) and fan favourite Under China show the band at their best. It’s shoe-gaze, it’s indie but still unashamedly glossy pop as deep gravelly bass lines make way for huge sickly sweet mainstream chorus’ with bright driving guitar work sometimes reminiscent of Bloc Party and tight vocal melodies that were clearly written with radio play in mind.

I say this in the nicest way possible because it really isn’t a bad thing, especially as Under China is such a good song. It’s on If and Liquid that the band fall flat for me though. If was clearly the bands way of showing a slower more thoughtful side of themselves, when in fact, all it shows is a lacklustre half paced U2 (and by U2, I mean their newer, shitter material) song at best. While Liquid takes some Gwen Stefani does Depeche Mode turn; It’s strange, it’s quite eighties, it doesn’t fit or work on this release and it really doesn’t do the band justice. And if it wasn’t for the typically (for them anyway) fantastic chorus, it would be unsalvageable.

I desperately want to say that this is a fantastic release, after all, Auction from the Promise Club are literally twenty minutes drive away from me but I just can’t. Fantastic chorus’, a fantastic single in Under China, but clearly still a lot of work to be done if the band are going to create some form of a career from music.

3 / 5

http://www.myspace.com/auctionforthepromiseclub