Back to the Future?
It's all looking good for White Rose Movement at present. Successful support tours with the likes of The Rakes have given way to their own headline tour and with the release of their debut album 'Kick' it should be no surprise to see them go from strength to strength.
Opening track 'Kick' starts with a great chunky bass sound but as soon as the retro keyboards come in you're transported back to the 80s. The vocals sound rather tortured and derranged but it works well to create a haunting feel, as an opening track though it does run the risk of putting off the first time listener. Forthcoming single 'Girls in the Back' is probably the most obvious choice for a single with it's catchy upbeat chorus, certainly the structure of the song is more familiar and I wouldn't be surprised to see it do well. In terms of the overall sound there is a definite 80s feel throughout but also dark undertones, if pushed you could argue that they come somewhere between Bauhaus, The Human League and Gary Numan without ever sounding too much like either one.
Debut single 'Love Is A Number' maintains much of the already familiar feel but has a good driving middle section and catchy chorus. The dark 'Alsatian' (also released as a single) is a candidate for best track and is a welcome departure from the 80s sound, featuring more of a rock based feel it's a good track that really highlights Finn's passionate vocals. 'Alsatian' is the first track to hint that there may be more than meets the eye about WRM and it's a shame that they don't really build on this with the following tracks.
Tracks such as 'Pig Heil Jam' and 'Deborah Carne' fail to produce anything memorable and by 'Testcard Girl' the airy synth parts are becoming a little wearing. 'Speed' has shades of Bowie about it and again shows promise but never quite achieves it's potential. Final track (save the secret track at the end!) 'Cruella' again offers nothing new, it's not that it's bad, on the contrary it's quite good but there's just something missing. 'Kick' is really a game of two halves, the first being quite interesting but the second rather flat by comparison. It just seems that half way through the album the variety stops and tracks just seem to blend into each other.
You can't deny that WRM have passion and belief in what they do and that goes a long way, particularly in a live environment. At present though they are some way from the finished article, certainly in terms of the quality of the songs but that's no bad thing as it gives them plenty of room to progress, this however they need to do as another album in this style would probably be another album too many.