The Fine Art Of Self Destruction

You kind of get used to record company hyperbole in this line of work, but surely describing Minuteman’s Matt Jones as ‘famously’ the keyboard player in Ultrasound is stretching a point somewhat? Resigned To Life offers just about enough to convince that Minuteman’s story may be worth following.

The chugging guitars and Jones’ slightly weedy vocals invite the obvious ‘indie’ tag. There are, however, enough touches of true innovation to suggest that Minuteman are worth more than your standard mid-afternoon second stage festival slot; ‘Gave You All Blame’, for example, opens in a swirl of atmospheric noise before bursting into a sweet melodic rush.

While the production is lush, the playing good and the songwriting solid, Resigned To Life is otherwise just a little short on moments to genuinely stop you in your tracks.

They do manage it on ‘Rid Of You’, a sweeping, string-laden ballad, which suggests that there may well be more to them than meets the eye.

An open verdict.