It came as a shock to find that Mighty Six Ninety are from LA and
not some down trodden English new town. The sound the band create
is a hybrid of the mid-'90s northern indie: the vocals are a dead
ringer for Martin Rossiter of Gene; the guitars could be those
of Kingmaker or Echobelly.
Believable ticks all the right boxes but is oddly joyless. It
flounders where it should swoon, strains for emotion where it should
fly. It's less than the sum of its record collection by some distance, and
when Richard Gardner sings: "It's not the day that brings me to tears,
it's the mediocrity that prevails," it brings a wry smile to my face for
all the wrong reasons.
I was tempted to skip the B-side Northern Borders, but I'm glad I didn't: from the Hooky style bass swoops to the machine gun snares and the
rough diamond backing vocals this is special. It's New Order's
northern misery mixed with A-Ha's keyboard runs and The Go-Betweens' melodramatic flourish. Someone should let people know
that this is a double A-side or this little gem could go unnoticed.
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