The vulnerable punk: it’s not quite the contradiction in terms that it sounds. Feargal Sharkey of The Undertones serves as the archetype-disaffected, nervous, needy-and Trevor Williams, fronting his band The Follys, comes across as all of these. Although Williams lacks the three-minute storytelling genius of Sharkey, on this latest EP the trio is in good, tight, spiky form, and all four songs are worth a listen.
‘Hostile Town’ opens with an energetic bass/guitar riff largely teefed from The Kinks ‘All Day and All Night’. There’s nothing remotely original in the two minutes that follow but the yelpy Pixieish vibe is quite enjoyable, as is speculation as to what particular town is being referred to. Given poor old Trev spends a lot of time making a chump of himself on internet message boards devoted to the local music scene, I would hazard a guess that the conurbation in question may be located on the Thames somewhere between Abingdon and Eynsham.
Next up is the title track, which is little more than a mid-tempo three-chord vamp, but is well constructed, with numerous well-timed guitar overdubs. In addition, the vocal melody sticks in the head and is better sung than the unduly hysterical ‘Hostile Town’. Special mention should be made of the drummer, Luke Gerry, who maintains clever little syncopated patterns throughout the verses and choruses.
I never particularly like songs about musicians performing-it always seems to be an excuse for narcissism and solipsism (The Band’s ‘Stage Fright’ is the best of the bunch), but ‘Don’t Let Them Down’ at least boasts some ‘proper’ rock guitar playing, although almost in compensation, Williams’ singing goes to pot, with more cracks than Jimmy Carr at the New Theatre. The melody reminds me of an incredibly and rightly obscure Bob Dylan song, ‘Tweedledum and Tweedledee’.
‘Thinking of You’ rounds things off pretty strongly. It’s a little more chromatic than the others and boasts another catchy chorus, before ending with a nod to Coldplay’s ‘Clocks’. So ends a much-improved record, when compared to last year’s messy debut, ‘Sunrise’. That record was stylistically all over the shop, with punk, rock and indie all vying sullenly for supremacy, but the songs on ‘Maps to Nowhere’ sit much happily next to each other. It’s not music that I find very interesting, lacking sophistication and emotional depth, but The Follys have clearly found their style and sound increasingly at home in it.