EP Review: Yellowire – Draw The Line
2 min read
It would seem that Yellowire are a band well travelled. Despite originally hailing from the rather remote Cornwall, UK, the band have made many an appearance on the festival circuit, playing to homegrown crowds such as those at Reading and Isle of Wight, but also crossing into Europe to play Germany’s infamous Rock AM Ring. 2013 sees them setting off on a UK tour supporting pop band The Feeling, before gearing up to release an EP follow up to their 2012 debut album Machine On Fire, an EP that goes by the name of Draw The Line.
Draw The Line opens with the breathy vocals of singer Ol Beach in the first track Seven Hours To Sunlight, urging his muse to ‘tell all [their] secrets’ before asking ‘Is this love or revolution?’ in the chorus that slowly builds into a somewhat euphoric clash of sound, with Beach stating ‘I was looking for an answer, I found it in my heart’. Frontliner is a slightly chirpier affair, with Beach singing ‘If you’re feeling lonely, then you know where to run to’ over a catchy guitar riff, whilst Peter is a slice of mid-noughties indie pop-rock that, whilst having the potential to be an indie disco anthem, feels reminiscent of British ‘indie’ band The Automatic (you know, the band of ‘what’s that coming over the hill, is it a monster?’ fame), however with its vaguely irritating synths, it falls a bit short of the mark. Out West, the final song on Draw The Line begins quite murkily before, once again, releasing into a more radio friendly pop-rock chorus.
The thing with Draw The Line is that, whilst undoubtedly carrying some decent choruses, the EP manages to feel a little bit predictable. It does not aim higher than any output that their contemporaries are putting out, whilst – Peter aside – the other three tracks feel rather Americanised in sound. This is rock tinged pop made for Radio 2, which is by no means a bad thing, but it fails to instigate any spark of excitement, and there is nothing that earmarks Yellowire as anything fresh or different, and the overbearing feeling here is that this is a band that – unfortunately – lacks identity.
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