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A Johnny Marr guitar riff is a bit like an Ancient Egyptian Pyramid - no matter how hard the modern generation tries to replicate it, they can't quite manage to. And so it goes with Surrey rockers' Hundred Reasons version of The Smiths' classic How Soon Is Now? Listen to it only to remind yourself that every band that has ever tried to ape a Smiths song has failed in a manner miserable enough to be the subject of a Morrissey lyric.
It ain't all bad though, even if Hundred Reasons' cover of Tracy Chapman's Fast Car (the C-side here), resembles a Skoda more than a Porsche. AC/DC's Back In Black comes off much more successfully with the stomping drum beat, that guitar riff (you know, the one which The Darkness use in practically every song), and the surprisingly helium-filled vocal rasp from Colin Doran, all much more in keeping with Hundred Reasons' rock pedigree.
They save the best till last, however - The Bangles' Eternal Flame guitared-up, screamed and belted through the speakers loud enough to send any Atomic Kittens scrabbling for safety. Why didn't they subvert How Soon Is Now in similar fashion? Thus, a missed opportunity, and as such, unlikely to halt Hundred Reasons' seemingly steady decline into obscurity.
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