One Night Only: Started A Fire
Friday, 08 Feb 2008 15:34
One Night Only release their debut album after a top 10 single
Vertigo, out February 11th.
In a nutshell…
Perfectly-crafted, nice, pretty-boy pop-rock
What's it all about?
Started A Fire is the debut LP from young rockers One Night Only. A polished and accomplished first album it showcases a broad range of styles from the show-tune nature of You And Me to the Killers-inspired single Just For Tonight.
These Yorkshiremen's songs are all clean and well produced with an added spit and polish to give everything that nice chart-music feel. The ten tracks here are all melody-driven songs and, coming together at little more than forty minutes, are neither difficult nor demanding listens. The album is layered and structured correctly with all the right harmonies needed to pull at an indie-popsters heart strings.
Who's it by?
One Night Only are a new addition to the indie scene, harking from punk-pop roots it is said how they started off playing covers by Blink-182 and New Found Glory. Yet, with their first gig now over four years ago they've since honed a more honourable sound with an increasingly soft-rock/indie feel.
Since their second single Just For Tonight stormed into the UK charts in February their full-length showcases more of the same catchy pop tunes that have got them where they are today.
As an example…
"Time does not have to be on your side/When you know home is not very far away/All we need is time." –Time
Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys
It's definitely in with a shout; this is the type of emotion-driven pop-rock that those Grammy judges lap up for breakfast. And there's plenty of widespread appeal too, as these tunes would struggle to cause offence even if they dressed up in thongs and gatecrashed the local WI.
What the others say
"Far be it from us to patronise the young, but when your singer started in your band at 12, your nearest big city is York and you’re being played by Steve Lamacq before you're old enough to drink, you have to wonder whether you've enough life experience." -NME
"The band's selling point is not that they are producing anything the indie-rock world doesn't already stock in abundance, but that, as teenagers, they do it with such a sure touch." - Guardian
So is it any good?
Talented as they are there's something disconcerting about One Night Only. No doubt they have skilled musicianship and the ability to strike out intricate and textured pop but they still lack the certain edge that makes you take them seriously.
There are some beautiful-sounding songs here but the subject matter and, more so, the approach to this subject matter does little to inspire. Lacking the scepticism that gives great pop-musicians their edge, this instead comes across as simply the quirky thoughts of suburban, teenage youth.
It seems that no matter how much time is spent polishing One Night Only's glossy exterior, underneath all the make-up hides only a weak and meaningless centre. Where is the guile? Where is the character?
One Night Only? It's sad, but unless they find something more to give their music a substance then that might be just how long the industry takes them seriously! Still though, who cares as long as there's a market for it, eh?
4/10
Mat Strowbridge
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