Now that their formation years of being together to write, rehearse and perform has come to a close, West London band The Chairs have recorded their first EP.
Pure Sleaze has 5 songs. A fusion of melodic rock: speedy guitars and a steady beat tied together with slightly rough vocals on three tracks, and a slower, more considered feel to the remaining two: ‘Saving’ and ‘Love Me Back’.
‘Rise’, the first track, kicks off the EP with a drum solo, quickly joined by a catchy riff, it’s a good opening track: lively, catchy, and leaves you with a certain expectation of the rest of the EP. Those expectations are met a few tracks in with ‘Pure Sleaze’: a fantastic up-beat, anti-love song with rhymes clever enough to be stuck in your head all night.
But The Chairs show us what they’re really made of with ‘Love Me Back’, a song that shows they are versatile enough to slow everything down, sweeten things up and still have a decent track.
The lyrics are well written, poignant even at times, and these are a bunch of talented lads. The lead guitar is particularly impressive, effortlessly carving it’s own path through the record.
For a first EP, it’s adventurous. It makes a statement. There’s a kind of differentiation between the tracks that you don’t always get with debut EPs. There’s no blending in or bad cover-ups of mistakes, or those irritating fade-outs. The tracks have a structure, a proper beginning and a proper ending. The Chairs have obviously worked hard to perfect this.
Sometimes they remind you of the Chilis, sometimes Foo Fighters, occasionally Muse, so, really, ‘Pure Sleaze’ should have been called Pure Heaven.
The Chairs EP is available for free on their website: www.thechairs.co.uk
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