Music
20 Mar 01

From Here On In

New British hopefuls South sound like a watered down amalgamation of almost every successful British rock act of the last few decades.

Never mind two, these guys fall between so many stools they'd want to be careful they don't break bones.

Recent single 'Paint The Silence' sees Joel Cadbury coming on like Ian Brown, post-Roses; 'Keep Close' takes its cue from The Beatles or Oasis, depending on your age, and spreads its Wings in a vaguely 70s classic rock sound; 'By The Time You Catch Your Heart' and 'I Know What You're Like' are heavy on the acoustics, the latter displaying enough slide guitar for a busload of hillbillies on holiday, together with a dearth of any real emotion.

Then there's the trancehall acoustica of 'All In For Nothing' and its reprise; the David Gray-lite of 'Run On Time'; the out-of-place instrumental 'Broken Head', parts one to three; and the sub-Oasis whine of 'Recovered Now'.

But the real offender here is the execrable Pink Floyd-ean 'Sight Of Me', which weighs in at a gargantuan seven minutes and forty seconds and causes one to wonder if these 22 year-olds have ever been taught the meaning of 'self-indulgent'.

If these guys are the future of rock across the pond, then methinks 'twill be a long time before cool Britannia rules the airwaves again.