Album title:
Toys and Kings
Artist:
The Heights
Label:
Best Before
Picking up on the anguished guitars and vocals of the new wave, the Heights slip back into an uncomplicated era of dashing rock and rolling outlaws. The drums do little more than keep time in an uncomplicated Joy Division style: Owain Ginsberg's voice and Pearse MacIntyre's guitar are at the fore. Ginsberg is in the tradition of gravel-gargling front-men, although he has yet to find his own style; MacIntyre slashes away at the chords, tightening up what could be a generic mid-paced rock sound. Toys and Kings is a solid debut, the band still calculating its influences and testing its impersonations. It rarely escapes the past, however: the obvious joy in every song never raises them above imitation. The tracks are inter-changeable, state of the art guitar jaunts: great on the dance floor, but hardly gripping as an album. A few wilder influences, more distinctive lyrical concerns and The Heights could impress us further. [Gareth K Vile]