Last year British pop punks A Few Too Many drew keen attention and praise with their debut album Lessons Learned. It was a collection of songs which had the body bouncing whilst giving modern pop punk a fresh lure to get close with. Admittedly for personal tastes, the album was as much magnetic for its potential as its eager roar. Now the quintet has returned with a new EP and a set of tracks which eclipse the previous release left, right and centre.
Hailing from Saffron Walden on the outskirts of Cambridge, A Few Too Many emerged in 2009. It is fair to say they have earned a rich reputation for their live presence ever since and as mentioned plenty of plaudits and support through their tracks and Lessons Learned and they can expect plenty more through Solid Ground. Offering six tracks which are as individual to each other in enterprise as they are united in creative exuberance, the EP sees the band toying with an array of flavours around their pop punk instincts.
It opens up with Stay The Night, a lone strain of guitar lure and spark to the incoming boisterous stroll of the track. The first hook grabbing ears incites a rolling charge of rhythmic and sonic zeal, continuing to core the lively blossoming of the song. Vocalist Michael Achilles soon leaps into the mix, his delivery carrying a rousing swing matched in the riffs and grooves of guitarists Jez Giles and Danny Freeman. The latter adds his vocals tones to the mix alongside those of bassist Luke D’Alton, taking central stage from time to time to add another rich hue to the excellent encounter.
The excellent start to the EP continues through Ultimate Glory, an instantly more clamorous proposal but just as swift to tempt with hooks and melodic wiring as the animated beats of Mitchell Holleyman bite. It calms down in many ways thereon in but not in providing an infectious incitement as shades of alternative rock collude with its punk catchiness before Ghosts tenaciously saunters in with the swings of Holleyman to the fore. As all tracks, it seals an immediate friendship with ears and imagination as its energy and contagiousness infests body and spirit; its twists and turns escalating the seduction.
Next up, Stuck On Repeat had no problem breeding pleasure and involvement if not quite finding the heights of its predecessor’s success. Nevertheless its zeal and catchy antics only thickly satisfied before being swiftly eclipsed by the early Green Day spiced swagger of The Pity Parade. With its Celtic blood and viral canter of hooks and vocal enticement, the track grabbed favourite track honours though it is quickly more than challenged by the EP’s closing title track.
Solid Ground springs its inescapable bait from its first breath, rhythmic hips swinging as the guitars cast their sonic web around Achilles’ and the band’s ever enticing vocal prowess. Every subsequent second and surge of enterprise is pure manipulation of body and throat; anthemic rowdiness at full virulence.
Short and snappy but as full of fun and adventure as you could wish for, Solid Ground is a set of tracks easily sparking refreshed appetite for pop punk. It is also A Few Too Many turning a new chapter in their sound, one sure to insist attention is fully and hungrily set upon them.
The Solid Ground EP is out now on all digital platforms.
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Pete RingMaster 17/10/2018
Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright
Pugnale’s guitar craft and enterprise is another potent feature and provides even more attention grabbing enticement within next up Road To Hell, his grooves wrapping round ears with infectious intent as the rhythms of Inserillo and Cola rap and throb with flirtatious aggression. Growing into a definite best track contender it is swiftly rivalled by the blues rock lined strum of Memories; a track with a whiff of stoner rock and grunge to its relatively calm but increasingly tempestuous climate
The band’s new single, Who We Are, does both with relish and tenacity straight away. The devilishly earthy stroll of the bass instantly had imagination and appetite hooked, its inescapable lure aligned to the perpetually lively dynamics of Mason’s rhythms. Both continue to arouse and manipulate as guitars and vocals join the song’s incendiary holler; a union brewing a delicious slab of punk ‘n’ roll as virulently catchy as it is rapaciously invasive.
As all his propositions, Disquiet is a DIY cast summons on ears and imagination as raw as it is creatively animated with opener Ulterior Motives quickly establishing Finucane’s distinct character of enterprise. Its acoustic/electric indie pop dances and flirts with ears though biding its time disharmony haunts the shadows brewing its infestation by the chord until eventually sparking a low key but inescapable cacophony for a captivating incursion of senses and song. The track epitomises the indefinable nature of his music; art and punk rock possible tags, wonk pop and dark folk others but honestly it is in a corner of its own.
The band embraces more hard rock like hues for next up Johnny Demented, its raw sonic haze magnetically tempered by Coulson’s angelic tones. The song did not quite raise the roof as its predecessors in appetite and the passions here yet from start to finish it is a full captivation raising the ante as its holler and breath erupt across its eventful body.
Through the equally tense Bareknuckle Lover, the mercurial attack of the track as alluring as it is resourceful, and the lively emotive roar of For Kingdom For Glory, Chasing Dragons continue to add fresh adventure to their release. The second of the two in some ways promises more than it delivers, certain inventive moments not exploited as much as personal tastes wished yet is still a gripping snare of sound.
The following Two Sides (of Hope) has a just as catchy lilt and swing to its tenacious swing shaped by a more intensive attitude. There is a defiant edge to every twist and turn, a rousing wind fuelling its incitement as the track swiftly got under the skin; a success more than matched by the contagious antics of Let Me See Now. Another which has a sense of an old friend returning with a new identity and intent, the song quickly had hips and feet doing its bidding as melodic and imaginative endeavour nurtured its brief but highly manipulative exploits.