Album Review: Idiots by The Electric Soft Parade

Tom and Alex White were just teenagers when they released Holes In The Wall, Electric Soft Parade‘s Mercury-nominated debut; mere slips of lads whose accomplished sound was always at odds with their tender years, especially in stellar singles like Silent To The Dark, There’s A Silence and Empty At The End. That particular high was more than a decade ago, and their last album – 2007’s No Need To Be Downhearted – is now six years old. Little wonder the pair took a little time out after writing and recording music pretty much continuously between 1997 and 2009.

Full Review >>

Six years after No Need To Be Downhearted, Electric Soft Parade's White brothers go back to what they do very well: music that's a bit psych, but thoroughly pop. The first two songs set the tone of the album: 'The Sun Never Sets Around Here' and 'Summertime In My Heart' are über-pop but well, you get used to it, just like you might actually enjoy pre-ganja Beatles songs. Yet the lyrics come across as being rather cheesy, from: "The sun never shined on me until you came around" to "And when I look in your eyes, suddenly it's summertime in my heart".

Full Review >>

There are few more heart warming pleasures than hearing a new record from a much-loved band who were previously assumed to be on something of a hiatus. It’s been six years since The Electric Soft Parade’s ’No Need To Be Downhearted’; the intervening years having seen solo projects, personal and emotional exploration and upheaval as the White brothers stepped back from the at times arduous grind of the music industry. During their absence they reconvened to celebrate the tenth anniversary of their Mercury nominated debut ‘Holes In The Wall’ and it is in that album’s spirit that they have crafted ‘IDIOTS’, a fourth album that shows they have lost none of their ability for making guitar pop.

Full Review >>