You may remember from a few years back Mitch Benn and The Distractions’ seminal hit ‘Everything Sounds like Coldplay Now’. This spot-on (if rather obvious) satire was intended to chuck a spanner into the workings of that pitiless machine that endlessly grinds out a stultifying succession of sensitive, wafty, piano-based stodge for the undiscerning Tesco Mum. Sadly, pop music seems immune to satire: hair rock and metal survived Spinal Tap, and the Coldplay clones endure: The Feeling, The Kooks, Snow Patrol, and the whole troupe of worthy old carthorses continue to plough their furrow, to the sound of squeaks of ecstasy from the likes of Fearne Cotton, the silly old mare.
To Liesel, an Oxford-London quintet, sound an awful lot like Coldplay, but they have a little bit about them, so don’t run away just yet. The instrumental stuff is workmanlike: gnarled and trembly piano, big distorted guitars that come by three-quarters in to signify Epic (you can set your watch by them!) and lots of splashy cymbals. So far, so numbingly generic, but To Liesel’s new wrinkle is that they have stuck a load of reverberant Fleet Foxes harmonies over it all, and the effect is often quite pleasing and even, in places, awkwardly beautiful.
Strongest song on the demo is ‘Dear Jane’, which uses the device of an exchange of comically earnest love letters to pile on the sentiment, but I have to curmudgeonly accept that it probably works-teenagers are like that. The lead vocalist has an undeniably pretty falsetto, and the backup singing is pristine and spacious. A little folkier is the gently lilting ‘My Name is Ocean’, which might be cousin to one of Stornoway’s more mystical ballads.
Less successful is the overlong and turgid ‘Ashes that Stain’, a piece of machine pop lacking the immediacy and pathos of ‘Dear Jane’, as well as the latter’s hooks, which I admit left me guiltily snagged. They really are an odd mix, this lot: instrumentally safe to the point of indolence but vocally expansive and searching. At any rate, it will be fun to see them at the Jericho later in the month (with the excellent Minor Coles) to see if they can cut it live. If so, and if they can wean themselves off their more cloying influences, then Oxford may be graced by some gorgeous choral pop in the near future.