Pop needs more bands like this. Not skinny jeaned clad hipsters. Not young upstarts suddenly starry eyed. Not meaningful and morbid ‘thinking’ bands. Straight up exciting songs from a bunch of mates who know how to use their instruments to great effect and  for great sounds.
Debut album A Slight Distraction has been bubbling up inside The Standards for a while now. The sharp observations and soothing contemplations that strike through these ten songs have evolved over countless gigs and years. This means that copious influences, from life and music, abound and make the pervading genre other that of a mature and pithy gaze at life.
There’s the summer fair sound of Resignation Waltz,  the wind in the hair chorus of  Speed Up, the Jarvis lilt to the vocals on  Mice, the Franz Ferdinand beat opening Slow Down (which you can get for free here) and the lamenting yearning of Drowning, When You Found Me which breaks into a very noughties dance beat complete with oohs, and the almost 80s Romantics chord finishing off She Came To The City.
Neil Winspear‘s voice is that of an outsider brought to the party, and the whole album is wrapped in that delicious pop gloom, a slightly off kilter reality that makes the sound tangible. Everyone from The Independent to FHM, BBC 6 to Feeling Gloomy have lent their support to The Standards, and if you like what you hear, remember to come down to It’s All Happening Fridays on October 26th at The King’s Head, Acton.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHn1zSfNPDU]

Francesca Baker

Dude. Awesome. Duuuuude. Awesome. Duuuuude. For anyone aged 15 and over in 2000, sorry, just needed to get that out of my system. For anyone younger, please don’t lament your tender years. It was a rubbish film anyway.
Considering that it’s a Friday night and I’m sitting here tapping away, by rights I should be sobbing into my microwave meal for one, but from the opening of Mrs Radbone my head’s jutting like one of them funny birds, just out of time with my feet tapping, and occasionally I rap my fingers on the edge of the desk. All in all I look like a puppet on strings having a fit.
There’s plenty going on, layer upon layer building up like a lego tower – multi-coloured and fun, the strong chords far more conducive to a solo air guitar session than lonely cry.
But part way through the music takes a breather, just long enough for the glory of the lyrics to shine through: ‘Love you Mrs Radbone cause you’re Kyle’s mum.’ Really? I was letting the Americana vibe go, but when they introduce dumb Blink 182 style lyrics, it’s hard not to roll the eyes and think back to, what , 2000, when this kind of thing was all the rage.
Thankfully I’ve listened to plenty of the band’s other tracks to know that, as well as the tongue in cheek teenager vibe, they have the ticking incessancy of The Strokes, the undulating urgency of Weezer, and more hooks than a curtain pole. Whilst I’m sure that Kyle’s pleased, for me the inauthenticity of ‘Mrs Radbone’ means that it just falls short of the mark that ‘The Ballad of Terry McGann’ and ‘Rhythmic Social Ritual’ have left me expecting.
But then, music hacks. What do we know? Head on down to The Cuckoo’s Nest, Acton, on Sat 11^th to judge for yourself.