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]