With a zany new sub-genre popping up every week, it’s crucial that fledgling bands are able to identify their place on the subway map of rock ‘n roll. From listening to The Shoos’ mini-album Rescue Room, it’s clear that this Dublin foursome know exactly where they’d place on the diagram, which can be found at www.rocknrollmetromap.com (and you thought it was just a bizarre metaphor!)
The Shoos would be tucked somewhere down the end of the infographic, away from any of the main stations on the grunge pop line, alongside Lifehouse, Matchbook 20, Train and a whole host of sappy Stateside outfits that us critical types abhor, but who still manage to sell freight cars of records. To that end, ‘Yeah’, The Shoos’ most popular tune to date, is by far their weakest. I can’t claim, however, that pirated riffs and innocuous lyrics aren’t doing them any favours, as party-seeking punters go mad for this mindless mosh rock number.
Single ‘Long Way Down’ is infinitely better, with a unstoppable chorus that slots happily into America’s ‘90s soft rock catalogue. The US influence is palpable on all 27 minutes of the mini-album (The Shoos’ lead singer is aptly and affectionately known as Texas), but it’s all in the name of a stomping, rebellious hook.
Ties are loosened and hair is mussed on ‘Sun Turns Black’, a melodic powerhouse ditty that echoes Queens Of The Stone Age as much as Counting Crows, while ‘Idolise’ is something entirely different, a haunting piano and strings number that’s well worth the schmaltz. Substitute Tex’s gruff croon on ‘Distance’ for a poppier falsetto and it could be The Script’s next international super smash.
Groundbreaking it ain’t, but Rescue Room is a crowd-pleasing mix of fist-punching pop rock anthems and high-emotion pseudo ballads that fit the commercial rock mould perfectly. Like many memorable debuts of the last decade, it holds your hand through an entire night down your local pub, from the bar to the dance floor, right through to the cold walk home. This is a good, nay, a great thing, but it doesn’t stop Rescue Room from being a less than ground-breaking first record.