Albums

Flashguns - Matching Hearts, Similar Parts

Rhian Daly 31/07/2009

Rating: 4.5/5

Living with a record is like living with your best friend; it seems like a great idea at the time but after a while the flaws become ever more visible and it all ends very sourly. Having shared space over the past month with Flashguns' latest EP, I'm expecting that fallout any day now but, for the moment, we couldn't be getting along better. In fact, I'm starting to doubt whether we ever will reach the stage of our relationship where we decide to call it a day, see other people.

Let's skip right to the end. Racing Race is far and away one of Sam Johnston's finest creations, a seven minute neurosis-instigating zenith that underlines perfectly not only Johnston's staggering vocal talent but also the ability of the band as a whole to create songs that are both musically affecting and...

Back at the start I Don't Not Love You fires the EP into life with coy proclamations of desire, beautifully sung over shimmering guitars in a manner that makes goosebumps nigh on inescapable. Sandwiched between the two lie the contrary fraught-guitars-vs-docile-chimes of Bells at Midnight and the elegant portrayal of England that is St George, the former of which is nothing if not backing up the claim that Johnston is one of the brightest lyricists of these times with its irresistible opening verse of “A figure of fun for you/I never put a foot of line for you/Seems like a hell of a thing to do” before further cementing that statement as fact on the couplet “It'll be good to say I used to stars to find the way/But my feet, they trip and stray”.

Often with music, after the initial wave of pure unadulterated love and feeling like you've chanced upon The One fades to a distant memory comes the sickening realisation that it was never that great to begin with - average at best - and maybe you shouldn't submit quite so easily to seduction. With Flashguns, its different. They're something special; charming, erudite and suave. They are It and they'll be stealing your heart very, very soon.