The first offering from Belfast’s Escape Act, Loosely Based On Fiction finds the three-piece wrestling with the ghosts of the past on a record that harbours a keen sense of nostalgia. Musically they’re equally quick to evoke days gone past, tapping into the ‘80s and ‘90s indie/alt-rock mainline and siphoning off some of the brilliance of the golden age’s icons, bands such as The Smiths, Pixies and The Replacements.
These are tales of trampled hearts and souls embittered by life’s inevitable disappointments. It’s the stuff of all humankind. What’s rare and worth cherishing is the poetic flair with which Escape Act navigate these much weathered narratives. Their uncanny knack for creating surging, senses filling melodies – all shuddering guitars, yearning vocals and racing beyond the speed limits rhythms – further helps illuminate their lyrical manuscript.
The main criticism that can be applied is that Escape Act rarely draw outside the indie-rock margins. However, when you hear glitteringly realised examples of the genre such as ‘God Says’ or ‘Sullied Behave For The Moon’ you can understand their reluctance to relinquish what is an indisputably winning formula. With more hooks than an abattoir and slab upon slab of bristling melodies, most strikingly on ‘Corpses Candle’ and ‘Kings Have Fallen’, Loosely Based On Fiction is indie-rock in excelsis.