There must be more to life than this.
The Shills may like to parade the name of the Manics on their press releases and try to align themselves to the early fire and passion of that band but ‘Raison D’Etre’ doffs more than a cap to the Libertines, with the main guitar line being ever so reminiscent of one of Pete and Carl’s more prominent moments and for all that The Shills may see themselves as a classic Indie band, they are definitely grounded in recent years.
‘Lad & Girl Love’ is a jangly 1980s indie effort and the vocals sound as strained as all the classics of that time did and ‘Icon of Degeneration’ has a bit of life to it but on the whole, this is quite a dull and bland collection of songs.
The biggest problem with this collection is that it seems pretty inconsequential and the three tracks that clock in at less than ten minute barely leave a footprint in the snow of your mind and it is hard to recall much about any of the tracks and this is the case even after repeated listens. Theres nothing bad about The Shills but by the same token, there is nothing going on here that would make them stand out to a listener and indicate they are a band who could be worth keeping tabs on.