Singles

The Hickey Underworld - Mystery Bruise

TC 24/07/2009

Rating: 3/5

Belgium hasn't contributed a massive amount to the World's doomsday casket now has it? But it does have the best beer and the best chocolate and that's more than enough for me! In terms of contemporary music we need to dig deep to pull out Deus and Soulwax, although they did win the Eurovision Song Contest in 1986 with Sandra Kim! All that suggests that the Hickey Underworld may have something to prove in order to gain attention.

They are named after a song by US post hardcore band Nation Of Ulysses and they do bear some influence from both that genre and era, with this song even being mastered by Howie Weinberg who took similar duties on Nevermind by a band who did rather well in the early nineties.

Ok, so we have a rebalance of credibility but what of the song? It's an energetic enough number to be sure with escalating guitars, a thundering rhythm section and lots of 'ooooaaaooooo's to sing along to. It feels a committed enough piece but does slot a little too comfortably into the pop punk B-listers satchel, along with the likes of New Found Glory or Yellowcard and that obviously won't be good enough to gain any major recognition. The eponymous debut album is about to be released and the band's promoters are billing it as 'a juddering, thunderous, multi-headed monster of a record'. Hmmm, that I doubt somehow, but in our new world of equal opportunity and European free trade I will maintain an open mind, because there is indeed a glimpse of some promise here.

The Hickey Underworld Myspace