Le Reno Amps – Appetite

Amongst the more perplexing criticisms to crop up in reviews is ‘X is not life-changing’. How much personal tumult does a listener actually crave? How unstable must emotions be for cataclysmic transformation to be not just a rarity, but a legitimate yardstick with which to beat those who don’t measure up? Is a record that leaves a listener relatively unchanged really a failure; surely enjoyment, however transitory, is honourable in itself?

Take Le Reno Amps: they’re not life-changing (other than at the smallest biological level, with their catchy genre-hopping more than capable of getting the endorphins flowing) and they’re unlikely to be playing through your mind as you lie prostrate on your death bed. But for Appetite’s duration, they’ll lift spirits pleasingly with a mix of Elvis Costello-style pop (Saturation Day), haunted house theatrics (Never Be Alone) and Green Day circa Warning (You Must Remember). Screw hyperbole; that’ll do us nicely. [Chris Buckle]