ALBUM REVIEW: The Other Ones – The Other Ones (Reckless Yes)
The Other Ones are one of those bands who’ll have you racking your brains for comparisons of who they sound like.
The answer, quite simply, is they’re like no one else; they have a sound which is familiar, but also quite unique.
They’re are a four-piece from London, formed in 2017, and united by their love of cats and fuzzy guitars.
Stephanie Dunne (vocals), Vicky Burr (bass), Nick Burr (guitar) and Francis Gray (drums) arrive sounding fully formed, but you can bet this top-notch debut is the result of lots of hard work.
Uplifting melodies, trashy guitars and songs about life, love and how it’s okay to be an outsider are their stock-in trade.
They make the sort of music they wish they’d heard when they were teenagers, and which will stay in your head for days.
After a couple of promising self-released EPs and a single, they signed to indie label Reckless Yes for this debut album.
It’s a record which will have you tapping your feet in seconds, and I promise you won’t stop until they’re done.
Nineties bands like Sleater-Kinney and The Breeders have been mentioned as touchstones, and they certainly share their feminist outlook.
Right at the centre of it all is singer Steph Dunne’s captivating voice. Producer Matt Hill has done an excellent job of bringing it to the fore, after early releases saw it buried beneath fuzzy guitars.
Of the 11 tracks here, nearly half were previously released. Money and Sad Case were on their first EP, 2017’s Perfect Girl, Normal Boy, but have been re-visited and are far more polished.
Better Off Alone, a single in 2018, is an outsider anthem about how it’s fine to be by yourself, and a fine example of Steph’s vocal dexterity.
Latest single Forever Young, about escaping a humdrum existence, is a catchy-as-hell slice of noise-pop.
You know exactly how Steph feels when she sings: “I want to feel 20 until I die/It’s just a state of mind.”
Punchy opener Drown You recalls the late ’80s indie-pop sass of The Darling Buds, and is one of a slew of songs about navigating the modern relationship minefield.
It’s a subject they return to time and again, in the excellent On Top Of Me, I Wish I Was Your Boyfriend and Out Of My Head, without ever repeating themselves.
I Think Too Much, a slower acoustic track which allows Steph’s voice to shine, brings things to a close after the frantic noise-pop 1-2-3 of Wasted Youth (where Nick takes lead vocals), Sad Case and the urgent title track.
I like The Other Ones. In fact I like them a lot. I thoroughly recommend this album if you like punk, power-pop and indie-rock.
It’s all of those, yet none of them at the same time. But frankly who needs to label music when it’s this good? 8/10
- The Other Ones is available now on CD and digitally from their Bandcamp page HERE.
