The Ramona Flowers – Dismantle and Rebuild

There’s a particular seam within the current indie strata that’s all but been mined out. The mass hunger for sweeping, fist-pumping anthemics, however, shows little sign of abating. Kodaline. Bastille. The 1975. Chancers all; purveyors of the very slightest soft rock. The Ramona Flowers fight for a place at the table with staggering cynicism. “The stars are out tonight / They’re as wide as my eyes,” strains singer Steve Bird on the title track. The stars, they’re wide. Obvious, really.

Other titles dismiss this half-baked enigma for festival field mass consumption. Lust and Lies. World Won’t Wait. Modern World. The production, all sharp beats, clean electro backing, processed guitars, is a soulless, teeth-rotting goo. Dismantle and Rebuild’s homogenised sheen is the very worst kind of formulaic, careerist rot. Desperate to be loved, it compromises at every juncture, rolling on its back like a kitten desperate for treats. Let the fucker go hungry.