The Avenues - What Happened In The Pink Room (EP review)
Introspective anthems soundtracking the trails and tribulations of one's formative years packed in a stellar debut EP.
The Avenue's debut EP lies in the sweet spot between The Paddingtons and Catfish and the Bottlemen. The boys worked with Pat Pretorius from AOO studios who has produced bands such as local powerhouse "Life" and New York garage rockers "Skaters". This pairing is certainly match made in heaven as the end product is very cohesive and concise.
Tom Foston documents the trials and tribulations of teenage boredom, heartbreak and being "too skint to live yet to alive to care". The first person narrative that Foston chooses to write in makes every word feel personal and from a place of reality. Not once on the EP does it feel like he's telling someone else's story but living through his own in real-time.
The stand out track of the album is "Out of Shape". It offers a reggae flare and is by far the most dynamic track on "What Happened In The Pink Room". It won't be a stranger to those who have seen them live, but it has not been previously released unlike "Boredom", "Haven't Got A Prayer" and "O.S.T.M". The bass rattles, the guitars soar and Adam really pulls his weight on drums, navigating the dynamics of this song masterfully. After what would be a suitable conclusion for other indie bands, The Avenues decide to take things down a notch and deliver a beautiful arrangement of counter melodies on the two guitars and bass. Adam decorates this with some shimmers on the drums and Fostons words can be delivered crisply before the bands kick things up again for the outro. The band sounds more confident and mature on "Out of Shape".
The other track which was previously unreleased is presented as an afterthought by Foston. An acoustic track by the name of "She won't love you tomorrow". It feels like a necessary conclusion to the EP. It's intimate and depicts a portrait of Foston finally trying to commit to some form of closure towards his failed love. It is certainly something every adolescent goes through and Foston paints the portrait vividly. "Boy is she really worth the wait? You know she won't love you tommorow, or the day after that."
The Avenues have a talent for crafting anthem after anthem and are certainly proving that they deserve to be moving onto bigger crowds and a bigger fanbase. I hope, however, that they start pushing themselves away from the formula I can see them starting to set into. Although the EP feels cohesive and they give some really solid single material throughout "What Happened In The Pink Room". This approach would feel much more empty and shallow for an LP where the longer product would expose the formula that works so well for The Avenues and if I'm being honest, it would end up becoming repetitive. This is why "Out of Shape" is my favorite on the album because it shows a band who is ready to start expanding with dynamics, genre and can hopefully keep things interesting. I really hope they do consider where they are going to move forward to, but in the meanwhile, they can celebrate in the fact they have released a stellar debut EP with more potential than some of the much bigger indie bands out there.
5/5 - Highly Recommended
For fans of: The Paddingtons, Catfish and the Bottlemen.
Check it out on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/album/79dnob21bY1eMAjk2oDfR9
The Avenues - https://www.facebook.com/theavenuesuk/