7

[insert play on words about cheese here]

"What happened, Joshua?" - the question that's relaxing in my mind and sitting on my lips. Joshua have had quite a few label changes - going through Doghouse, Immigrant Sun and Sad Bastard Records - only to land on Engineer Records, the base of operations from which they've released their latest CD: "Baggage EP". It invokes such a mixed bag of feelings and emotions in me. For one thing, it's refreshing to find a band that profess to be "emo", yet doesn't take the weathered route of Funeral for a Friend-like screamdom. On the other hand, the sound that Joshua produce often simply collapses into cheese. Not literally, unfortunately, but the vocals of Joshua sound like they just left a musical vacuum cleaner - or failing that, a tape recorder - on next to a New Found Glory CD.

The EP takes the form of five songs, two of which are purely acoustic. The first track, "A Better Place", has a nice instrumental build up, but then releases The Voice from its cage, forcing me to scurry and take refuge from its nasal, NFG-like qualities. Actually, the whole song just sounds like New Found Glory, which of course means it's one upbeat mofo of a song. At least these guys can play slightly imaginative music, except for the guitar solo, which is just the boringly uninspired idea of basically running the vocal melody though a guitar.

Phew. Track 2, "Repetition Forever", at last - my favourite song on this EP. They've actually managed to hold back the cheese on the track for this song to be produced normally, resulting in a pleasant listen, which should hold you over until the acoustic tracks later on.

Eep! The pressure of holding back the cheese in "Repetition Forever" has resulted in the nuclear explosion of dairy produce in "Perfect Man", or as I like to call it, "Edam". Oh yes, no holds barred here: major intervals; some kind of organ, and what would a cheesy Joshua song be without The Voice? Thankfully, this song doesn't last all that long, allowing the pretty acoustic songs to take the stage.

The majority of "What Love Requires" is simply vocals (hereby demoted from the title of The Voice, now that he's stopped copying NFG), simple guitar chords and a tambourine for percussion. Notably, the song does open with a couple of voices harmonising a simple riff, which continues to drift through the background of the song like ghosts in a graveyard, which scatter when the song develops into the chorus as the clock hits two minutes, coming back once the light of the chorus has left again. Drawing to the end with a nice piano and guitar solo, the song goes into the chorus for one final time before completeing the better of the two acoustic songs on this EP.

"Make It Mine" could actually be confused as just a continuation of the previous song at first, if it weren't for the development into a speedier pace and more intricate guitar playing as the song progresses. This soon fades again, leaving just the vocals and simplistic drumming - still only a tambourine - but eventually makes way for a really sweet ending to the song, with dual acoustic guitar melodies providing a nice piece of music to slowly fade out into the depths of memory to.

Joshua are pleasant enough, but, my God, the cheese in some parts is actually unbearable. Apparently Joshua are for fans of Jimmy Eat World, Elliott, Koufax, Jawbox, Braid and the Get Up Kids - so if you're one of those happy campers, then take a risk and go for it. If, on the other hand, you prefer your cheese in cake-form or served on toast, then give it a miss.