The Tacticians - Girls Grow Up Faster Than Boys/Get A Move On

Following the success of their first acclaimed single, London’s Alright/Hardcore Porn, The Tactician’s are back with more of their distinctive urban folk sound. Brothers Ollie & Joe Jr, who form the core of this London based band, have a soft spot for perfect three-minute pop songs about dangerous liaisons, temptation, failure, heartbreak & love in the big city, accompanied by soulful guitars, glockenspiel & sweet harmony vocals.

Inspired by countless arguments about Playstations and football, Girls Grow Up Faster Than Boys deals with an undeniable fact of life. Listing girls’ influences as ‘James Dean, Vaseline…’, this song is guaranteed to raise a smile. Northern soul inspired Get A Move On kicks of with a repeated countryesque electric guitar riff that will be stuck in your head all day, and builds up to passionate vocals, pumping drums, horns and even a tambourine; if you’re not dancing then there’s something wrong with you. Bonus track Respectfully Proceeding is hypnotic and highly sexually charged, with lyrics that would seduce any girl.

Verdict: The Tacticians combine insanely catchy, danceable tunes with lyrics that everyone can identify with – you can’t help but get hooked!

The Holloways - So This Is Great Britain

Holloway Road isn’t short of attractions. Home to Emirates Stadium, and one my favourite venues, Nambucca; it now has something else to be proud of - The Holloways, whose debut album proves that they will soon be major contenders.

Opener Great Britain sets the tone for the whole album. A fucked-up version of all those songs you only ever hear on The Last Night Of The Proms (think ‘In the land of hope and glory/Do we really rule the waves?’), it’s a scathing critique of our modern culture and society, which at the same time affirms that living in Britain is still better than living anywhere else. It’s an inexplicable feeling that most of us can identify with, which is part of what makes this album so great.

The stand out track is the current, calypso-tinged single, Generator. Its simple, infectious happiness makes you forget all about the cold and rain, and bounce around chanting ‘I can get a generator and a record player and generate the music that makes you feel better’. Next up are a few tracks that unfortunately sound like filler, most notably Fit For A Fortnight, but following the tracks, previous single Two Left Feet and Reinvent Myself, are so good that you won’t remember the earlier disappointment.

In the midst of such riotous joy, the beautiful ballad Most Lonely Face is all the more poignant. It’s a touching tale of falling in love with a girl who ‘didn’t know if she had any soul left to save’. Don’t worry, though, you’ll soon be in high spirits again, thanks to the exuberant Happiness & Penniless, reminding us that it’s better to have fun than accumulate money, as ‘What’s the point of money if you’ve got no time to use it?’

There’s a bit more filler, and then the final track, Fuck Ups, a hilarious attack on the people of Britain, rhyming ‘Bin Laden’ with ‘hard on’, and singing about a 33-year-old grandma who’ll still be wearing fake Burberry when she’s 75. As the album draws to a close, you’ll be left with a massive smile.

Verdict: There may be a few filler tracks, but the stand out tracks more than make up for that. Great fun to banish the winter blues.

TBS - Liar (It Takes One To Know One)

Liar (It Takes One To Know One) should be a great song – it’s technically perfect, Adam Lazzara’s voice has rarely sounded better, and it has the intelligent, eloquent lyrics and overlapping vocals that have become Taking Back Sunday’s trademark. So why can’t I shake this nagging feeling that TBS just aren’t as good as they used to be? Why is Cute Without The E (Cut From The Team) so much better? Maybe it’s because this song is so linear, so conventional, compared to other TBS songs that start in one place and end somewhere completely different. Or maybe I just miss the teenage angst.

Verdict: A great jump around your room song, but disappointingly lacking the old TBS spark.

Battle - Back To Earth

After years of struggling to get noticed, it seems that Battle are finally hitting the big time. They were acclaimed at South By South West, being called “The best thing there” (ok…it was by The Sun, but it’s still true), and have become firm favourites with the likes of Zane Lowe & Marsha from XFM. With Back To Earth, Battle have collected a couple of their popular singles, as well as four new tracks, ahead of their debut album pencilled in for a release early next year.

Opener Wicked Owl, sounding just like a Departure song, draws you in with a riff that tears forwards then brakes suddenly and Jason Bavanandan's soaring vocals asking ‘Is this the person I am?’ Next up is Tendency, which recently got into the top 40 and was proclaimed ‘The hottest record in the world today’ by Zane Lowe. Bristling with desperation and longing, Bavanandan reminds a lost love that ‘I'm the boy who threw his arms around you’. Beautiful Dynasty carries on with this theme, with ‘All my sorrows I give to you/All my pain and wasted years’, yet is saved from the depths of emo-esque depression by an infectious revolving guitar riff.

Unfortunately, Isabelle reminds me of a girl I like to call Is-a-bore, which makes me want to hate it, but Battle are so good that I just can’t bring myself to skip the track. In fact, it’s one of the best tracks on this EP, and if it had any other name it’d be perfect!

Every track on the EP is of a consistently high standard. Final track Easy To Listen To, which ends with the most amazing guitar solo, sums up how I feel about Battle. They sound like a mixture of all your favourite indie bands, with a lyrical eloquence and energy that almost forces you to keep playing this EP on repeat.

Verdict: Dark but beautiful, it begs to be listened to. Bring on the debut album!