Singles

Shady Bard - Trials (Part III)

Owain Paciuszko 17/05/2010

Rating: 3/5

Single from forthcoming sophomore record from Birmingham four-piece, has a Latin influenced castanet flavoured percussion sound, complimented by similarly themed brass and flamenco guitars. Meanwhile Lawrence Becko's vocals and sombre piano contrast to the livelier instrumentation around them, nudging things in the direction of early-Muse on a downer.

It's a rich and multi-layed track, but it feels like a piece of a puzzle rather than something complete of itself. This probably stems from the fact that their new album tells the story of a village ravaged by fire, and perhaps works better as an overall concept than individual chunks. Nevertheless, this is an intriguing peek into a interesting sounding LP, but as a single it doesn't really work.