Album Review: Saint Motel – saintmotelivision
2 min read
Sometimes there’s music that is exciting and fun whilst you’re listening to it, but you struggle to remember afterwards. If thrown on at a party it would get people dancing, and some people may even try to find out the name of the band, but when the next song comes on, any memory of them will be gone. There’s an innate catchiness and bombast to capital-P Pop music that indie pop rarely captures, even as it edges closer and closer every year, which is why indie pop is a scene teeming with fun, but forgettable bands. Saint Motel is one such band.
Move, the opening song on Saint Motel’s new saintmotelivison is comfortably the best track on the album. The funky horn riff that opens the track is genuinely catchy, and melds with the handclap-and-guitar backing elegantly. The verses are less distinctive, with some fairly anonymous vocals feeling out of place on the otherwise exuberant track. Nonetheless, the song is punchy and fun, even if it relies a little too much on that central horn melody.
Later tracks are somewhat less distinctive. Destroyer features a similar horn melody to Move, but pared pack to a rhythmic backing part, with a fairly bland vocal melody taking centre stage. You Can Be You mixes crunchy drums with moody pianos, but again, the lack of a distinctive vocal melody lets it down. The entire album feels like it’s lacking a certain energy, even though it’s straining hard to be fun. It certainly owes a debt to other, more successful indie pop bands like The 1975, but their music has drama and flair that makes it stand out. saintmotelivision is designed to be an easy summer listen, but it almost does too good a job at that, since it floats through the listeners head without making much of an impact.
