Little John Rocket - Nurnberg

Little John Rocket have the riffs and lyrics to draw you into their melodrama without verging on Emo. The quirky vocals are certainly distinctive, though the Automatic-styled gratuitous shouting throughout the chorus should certainly not be encouraged. The shrieks of "rawk and roll!" and other lines such as "Excuse me for asking, but were you in a movie?", followed by a few power chords here and there, borders heavily on gimmick. Nurnberg has the fiesty melodies, but they're a tad contrived and not as "dark" or strange as they'd perhaps have you believe. It's like the musical equivalent of what four years at art school does to your dress sense: it becomes a little bit too self-aware. [Lucy Galloway]