Palma Violets - 180

‘Best Of Friends’ kicks off ‘180’ spectacular style, this is more than your average splice of indie-punk and has all the ingredients to go down in history as a classic album opener. It begins with a riff which could be from any classic Billy Bragg song and then launches into a sure-fire fan favourite sing-along. The guitar solo, seemingly lifted from the Mary Chain’s ‘Just Like Honey’, has a beautiful simplicity which will leave fans in a state of euphoria, and Sam Fryer’s vocals have a strained smoker’s gravel which lends the song a heightened sense of despair.

Unfortunately, they don’t hit the heights of ‘Best Of Friends’ on the rest of the album. This is not to say the rest of the album is poor, but compared to the majesty of the first track, the rest feels a bit like the Queen’s 2^nd cousin trying to sneak into a family portrait.

‘Step Up For The Cool Cats’ is a prime example of this. It opens with the classic sounds of Echo & The Bunnymen, combining the Doors and Velvet Underground to create the ultimate cool reverberation. Sadly it just doesn't go anywhere as exciting as the Bunnymen’s ‘Rescue’ or ‘Crocodiles’.

Album closer ‘14’ is eight minutes long and is essentially two different songs: the first half is a decent tune and casually builds itself to a glorious drunken crescendo. Nevertheless, the imagination of The Who or Green Day to build a raucous rock opera is not present and when the song finally gets going again it feels too much like a laboured Libertines track.

‘Rattlesnake Highway’, however, is an admirable nod to the Ramones’ ‘Biltzkrieg Bop’. It may be a little too close the aforementioned song for die-hard Ramones fans but Sam Fryer’s gritty voice definitely gives the Ramones’ style a fresh impetus.

This may not be the most glowing of reviews but we definitely recommend this debut. It is full of promise and has a lot of good pop sensibilities which will inevitably be enjoyable to most. TT is looking forward to their second album already, where we hope their own sound, which has been developed on the cracking ‘Best Of Friends’, shines through more prominently.