Hats Off To Buskers

outhful Dundee rockers The View certainly make a virtue of economy; none of the fourteen tracks on their debut album venture past the four-minute mark, and only one makes it further than three-and-a-half (by a margin of three seconds – doubtless the group consider it to be a mini-epic!).
Still, one can’t be critical of the band's respect for brevity – their ability to end things before they get boring makes this a breezily enjoyable debut, albeit one that is doggedly (and sometimes frustratingly) one-paced.
Comparisons to The La’s and The Libertines have already been forthcoming, and there's certainly more than a whiff of Lee Mavers about the vocals. Still, The View do manage to emerge with a personality and sound of their own – and it’s one worth paying attention to. The best songs have a deliciously melancholic ring, and an effortless way with a swooning, indie-disco melody. There's a pleasingly ragged, ramshackle feel to much of this material, but with production and musicianship focused enough to keep the record from degenerating into a lo-fi shambles.
‘Superstar Tradesman’ evokes the heart-swelling, romantic breeziness of The Strokes at their finest; the single ‘Same Jeans’ swaggers effortlessly and has a chorus to die for; ‘Skag Trendy’ manages to thrash with remarkable sweetness; and ‘Claudia’ has the swish and swirl of early Suede.
Minus points for the two tracks at the album’s centre – ‘The Don’ and ‘Face For Radio’ are grating, smugly calculating Kinks-y jangles, and the unwise sequencing only manages to maximise their irritancy levels.
Still, what debut isn’t flawed? For the most part, The View have fashioned a charming, accomplished full-length album, at first asking. Hats off indeed.