Don't Bring Me Down

Not a great name but an apt one. Like the Rockingbirds, Witness and Grand Drive before them, it is to the West that Goldrush look for the inspiration for their musical adventures.

Recorded at Abbey Road, the home of the extravagant session, the Oxford five-piece throw everything they have at their debut album and then some. Aside from their own impressive array of instruments, the record is stuffed full of guests and… erm… ambience technicians.

Yet Don’t Bring Me Down works rather well. After a slightly stuttering start when their songwriting doesn’t quite match up to their ambition, the record settles into its own impressive groove. Like ‘Same Picture’, ‘Wide Open Sky’ is a sunny, full-blooded strummer, but from then on the band head for more intricate, complex pastures. ‘Bright Eyes’ has the audacity to feature a tuba of all things and in ‘Let You Down’ the band fashion something of which Brian Wilson would be proud.

Through it all, the instruments and musicianship simply shimmer, creating sounds that you’ll hear nowhere else this year. That may be Goldrush’s ultimate problem – finding a place on the musical landscape where they can fit in – but if that’s their only problem then things are looking good.