EPs are great, aren't they? No sooner have Duels served up their stonking debut album The Bright Lights & Things I Should Have Learned, but those naughty Yorkshire scamps are back again with three whole new songs to tempt single-lovers away from that 79p one-track download and into their local record store for some CD-shaped consumer fun.
First up there's another chance to listen to the gentle, throaty urban pop-rock of Slow Build, with its tales of late night trains and fractured relationships - in their own words; "the sound that machines make, the sound our heartbreak," - and of televisions that talk to no-one. Imagine an ironic Northern Suede with a more industrial bent from a singer who sounds as if he averages about 40 fags a day.
Sleepwalking is faster, with furious paranoia-tinged guitars, while Anniversary is more dreamy, Revolver-era plucked strings and the slower melodies of a band deliberately slowing themselves down to see how it sounds. Then they round it all up with Into Gas, steady beats underneath a crescendo chorus. Isn't it about time they were huge?
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