Single Review
The fact that there's been a bit of an Eighties music revival in recent months has probably not gone completely unnoticed. Bands like The Drums have been seen to be stepping back into the popular post-punk world of over two decades ago. London five-piece La Shark appear to be going for something similar, albeit in a slightly different manner. The range of genres on offer on their debut single ‘A Weapon’ is almost impossible to decipher. La Shark seem to have taken all of their favourite bits from the ‘80s and thrown them into one big mixing bowl of sound.
The track is a delightfully insane combination of New Wave, early indie music and a few handfuls of anything else that has taken their fancy. It starts off with a funky rhythm that bounces through the intro as frontman Samuel Geronimo Deschamps manages to create a perfectly zany vocal style in which he almost croons and raps the first verse. At the chorus, the song bursts into a lively electro-pop tune that sounds like it could be a Prince song sung by a collaboration of Adam Ant and John Lydon.
For the B-side ‘Modern Man’, La Shark have employed a similarly peculiar style as the single. Deschamps continues his quirky vocals over a playful bassline and an interesting organ riff. The result makes for a fascinating listen, though not quite as impressive as the A-side.
La Shark’s first single may receive a mixed response. There’s a fairly good chance that you may find their weird blend of music about as pleasant as nails down a blackboard. However, on the other hand, if you’re interested in hearing something different and have been excited by the recent resurgence of Eighties-style pop music, you might just love this.