It doesn’t take the casual listener very long to figure out where The Plea are coming from, sonically speaking. With their sweeping guitar textures, driving rhythms and widescreen anthems, the Donegal four-piece have perfected that windswept big sound – the one that has made the likes of Coldplay, Keane, and before them U2 and Simple Minds, the worldwide stadium fillers that they inevitably became.
After slogging for years in both the US and the UK, The Plea’s long-awaited debut album (produced by Chris Potter – who, not surprisingly has worked with The Verve, U2 and Keane among others) boasts the kind of song-structures that come tailor-made for giant festival stages with massed audiences gathered before them. They certainly stake a solid claim to occupying the anthemic turf. And while a cynic might suggest that their sound (and songs) lack the kind of original approach that might enable them to challenge U2 and Cioldplay at the ead of the queue, they do what they do spectacularly well. Front man Denny Doherty possesses a powerful, commanding voice and the all-important brooding good looks, while the guitars and rhythm section are rock solid. ‘Staggers Anthem’ – a first cousin of ‘Where The Streets Have No Name’ – and ‘Praise Be’ are their most compelling calling cards while the recent single, ‘Oh Ah Yay’ boasts impressively crunching guitars and an insistently memorable chorus. Other contenders for future rock classic status should things go according to plan include the reverb-drenched ‘The Odyssey’ and the, er, chiming ‘Windchimes’ an epic ballad with a slightly more acoustic backdrop.
‘Too Young To Die’ the album’s closer starts out in a sombre, low key manner before the chugging, propulsive rhythms gradually build into a kind of a cross between Coldplay’s ‘Yellow’ and U2’s ‘With or Without You’. The title is hardly misleading. Dreamer’s Stadium could be coming to a stadium near you pretty soon...