I must have been out the night they announced that they had invented the Coldplay 2000, a machine that can churn out endless sets of indie hopefuls who all sound exactly the same. I am beginning to suspect that such a machine exists, though, because that's the only explanation I can come up with as I sit here and plough through yet another single that is essentially Coldplay by numbers.
Of course, there are also elements of all the other big 'indie' names of the moment; there's a pinch of Keane, Snow Patrol and Athlete in there too. It's all very nice and inoffensive, and it's well written in as much as it's written to a tried and tested formula. Surely someone somewhere is writing angry, wiry and interesting indie these days - this can't be all there is. There is that New Wave sound, of course, the kind of thing that Franz Ferdinand and The Killers did so well with. And what's this? Why it's an Oversol B-side that has 80s synths, a drum machine and a skinny tie.
I may well be wrong, but Oversol seem to be one hell of a contrived proposition. Thankfully, they're not really anything special, and with any luck they won't be adding their name to the ever-growing list of successful - but ultimately dull and ordinary - bands that pass as indie these days.
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