It’s now been nine years since Oxford’s Goldrush released their Americana-tinged debut album Don’t Bring Me Down. This eager young record-buyer had hoped that the album’s title, like the music within, was some kind of portmanteau of Neil Young’s ‘Don’t Let it Bring You Down’ and The Beatles’ ‘Don’t Let Me Down’. Regardless, it was inspiring at that point in time to see a local band that wasn’t Radiohead or Supergrass reaching a national audience. In the years since, core members Joe and Robin Bennett have become prominent movers in the local and national music scene, organizing the ever-expanding Truck Festival which has just celebrated its fourteenth anniversary. The Dreaming Spires is the Bennett brothers’ latest musical project, and they are joined here by Loz Colbert of Ride on drums – which is presumably where their self-proclaimed ‘shoegaze country’ tag comes from. However, those of you expecting My Morning Jacket or Lift to Experience should be prepared for a distinctly clean-cut, West Coast sound on ‘Everything All the Time.’
Like Goldrush before them, The Dreaming Spires wear their influences on their sleeve, and it’s not simply lazy journalism to say that they sound like Big Star and Teenage Fanclub. They really do. To their credit, the band and producer Sam Williams have managed to nail that Grand Prix sound perfectly. Like Charly Coombes & the New Breed, The Dreaming Spires ooze a kind of accomplished professionalism, and theirs is a familiar, radio-friendly sound. Unfortunately, this slickness seems to prevent them from displaying much of a personality of their own.
The opening chords and verses of ‘Everything All the Time’ absolutely smack of Teenage Fanclub, before Robin’s Tim Wheeler-eqsue voice lends itself perfectly to an infectious chorus akin to Ash’s ‘Shining Light’. It’s a solid summer tune and has just as much hit potential as you can hope to expect from a guitar-based band.
B-side ‘In Our Lifetimes’ fares less well, however. In fact, it sounds like one of the weaker Flight of the Conchords songs with its nostalgic ‘Tiny Dancer’ feel, good-time guitar licks and overly earnest and simultaneously simple lyrics that verge – presumably unintentionally – on being satirical. Throughout the song, Robin sounds shaky, singing “Will our children’s children understand/How we gave them such a losing hand?” – and while the environmental message is a worthy one, the overall execution is a bit, well, naff. (And we hate nothing more than having to resort to using the word “naff”). On the plus side, the swelling strings and life-affirming brass section in the outro positively recalls latter-day Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci.
Before anyone begins to suggest that we’re hating on the Dreaming Spires because of their pedigree, let us assure you that the opinions stated here have nothing to do with that. ‘Everything All the Time’ is, as we’ve stated, a well-crafted and executed pop song that will likely do well. It’s already been spun by BBC Radio luminaries like Steve Lamacq. However, the quality of songwriting and originality on display here is lacking compared to at least a handful (maybe two handfuls) of other local bands; perhaps it’s unfair to expect so much from a fledgling band.
Having said that, the accompanying press pack asserts that when The Dreaming Spires played their songs at Wood Festival earlier in May they were cajoled into doing three encores – but that’s a less impressive feat when you’re the organizer of the whole shindig…
Poet Matthew Arnold is attributed with giving Oxford it’s affectionate nickname, describing her as “that sweet city with her dreaming spires”, referring to the beautiful, iconic architecture. This proves to be a fitting moniker for the band; the songs here show that The Dreaming Spires can attempt to construct a gorgeous pop song in the same vein as pop masters Big Star, but as long as they continue to do so they continue to do themselves a disservice, as we can just listen to #1 Record, Bandwagonesque or Radio City. The Dreaming Spires show promise as writers of anthemic pop songs; let’s just hope that they can become masters in their own right rather than masterful imitators.