4

A Let Down

Unsigned southerners The Decoys peddle a tame brand of pop-punk that could best be described as 'like your mates' band's early stuff' – basic, no-brainer songs that reek of too many brainstorming sessions in Subway and occasional practice sessions in someone's parents' cellar. Which is fine. Or at least, it is when you're 14 and your band is the only band in school. But for a band that have been going for three years, and for a band whose press release claims that they will take "you by storm", it really isn't good enough.

The opening song on EP 'Songs About Girls', 'Torn Up', sets the tone – a painfully by-the-numbers pop-punk song, complete with a high-flying but hollow chorus, customary mild guitar feedback and lyrics that that display little-to-no imagination (for example "how'd you get on?/did you have some fun?/did you get it on?"). I don't quite understand why this is the case, but run-of-the-mill pop-punk acts seem to be obsessed with thinking up bland two-word statements and turning them into chorus lines. Think: "torn up, torn up, torn up, torn up" etc. and that's pretty much it – you've heard the song. Track two 'Song About A Girl' starts a little more promisingly, with an actually quite atmospheric beat. The illusion, however, is quickly shattered by the chorus; another un-inspiring, empty pop-punk sludge. On 'She Won't Wait' singer James Elder seems to try and emulate the power and elegance of Muse's Matt Bellamy's voice, with little success. The EP never recovers from this. More likely to take you by a mild drizzle than by storm.

To be clear, there's nothing terrible about this record - it's not offensive or unpleasant to listen to. It's just nothing to listen to. Ignorable, at best, 'Songs About Girls' is definitive proof, if such a thing was needed, that soft guitar melodies, vocal harmonies and two-word chorus lines don't make good music. Pedestrian indie-pop-punk with fewer surprises than a blank A4 notepad – this EP is just five empty Songs About Girls.