On paper this is an interesting release. Sam Fullman and Nick Reeves co-wrote a song called The West Country and then both ended up playing it in their respective bands. Onomatopoeia Records have decided to release both versions, with an extra song each and the original demo on 10”.
So far so good. Both bands are part of the lo-fi scene in Croydon and they do sound quite similar. This extends to the recording and production which has everything within and across the tracks sounding much of a muchness. Magic Brother in particular, I feel would benefit from some ‘lift and separate’, and perhaps even some ‘nip and tuck’. Their version of The West Country is my favourite of the five tracks. It is country rock with a flautist twist. The two voices go well together and the organ drives things along nicely. They probably won’t appreciate me for saying this but it does remind me of North Country Boy by The Charlatans and also Deacon Blue (in a good way) and The Levellers. Their other contribution Holy Cow shows some fire in the chorus and a pretty cool breakdown. I think they should record an album of duets, no sweat.
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The Cassettes version starts out like...err...The Charlatans? It is also a pretty good country rock song (must be a pretty good song then) with a stronger backbeat and it also benefits from a shorter arrangement. Receipts bears more than a passing resemblance to The Libertines. “I’m dating fancy models/I’m writing slender novels” indeed. I like the demo, it’s a demo after all and has me thinking that I might have liked acoustic versions of all these songs even more.
Onomatopaeia Records online
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