Tag: Real Ghost Records

EP Review: The Run Up – Good Friends, Bad Luck

The Run Up’s latest EP is earnest, sincere melodic punk from a band who’ve found their sound. FFO: The Gaslight Anthem, Off With Their Heads, Iron Chic, The Menzingers

Review by Alan Corcoran.

On first listen the new EP Good Friends, Bad Luck washes over you like a sea of whiskey and ginger ale. It is sharp and sweet, it has a kick to it and you have to say it makes you feel good. Sure, you can sense underlying problems lurking and there may be emotional hell to pay later, but for now you’re feeling feelings, and most of them are pretty damn good.

The band are tight. Riffs and drum fills flow out of your speakers with such a natural cohesion that it feels like The Run Up are a five piece hive mind. They seem to anticipate each other’s musical quirks and if you told me these songs were the work of one obsessive genius and not five dudes from Bristol I’d believe you.

There’s a certain confidence in yourself and your bandmates that gets expressed when you have an opening instrumental song on a release. These type of songs come about when a band has found its groove. They have found their sound, they trust each other and they believe in the release enough to present it as a complete piece of art. It’s a subtle but stubborn ‘fuck you’ to the casual, impatient listener and a stimulating appetiser to those who are ready to experience all five courses. Continue reading “EP Review: The Run Up – Good Friends, Bad Luck”

EP Review: Arms & Hearts – Fortitude

Arms & Hearts’ second release is a short, passionate EP full of heart-on-your-sleeve songwriting. FFO: The Gaslight Anthem, Chuck Ragan and Ducking Punches.

Review by Sarah Williams.

Arms & Hearts has just released Fortitude, their second EP, via Real Ghost Records. The short release sounds like a glimmer of lonely hope, with heartfelt lyrics and a big-room production feel.

First track, Fortitude is a bright, foot-tapping acoustic song. It’s our first taste of Arms & Hearts wistful, romantic and comfortingly cliched songwriting. “Home is wherever you happen to be that night,” is such a pure turn of phrase that it sends an arrow straight through your heart. The warm tones tells you their live show is going to be at its best in quirky, intimate venues; ideal for a candlelit date-night with your tattooed sweetheart.

The introduction to second track, Dagger Eyes has a reverberating big-room feel, not unlike The Gaslight Anthem’s slower pieces. The chorus has a gritty vocal refrain that would sound right coming from Brian Fallon, although there’s a clear Chuck Ragan influence also. The instrumentation across both tracks speaks similarly of Gaslight, but also of some of the more resonant pieces by City and Colour. The lyrics call up ‘broken glass’, ‘bleeding hearts’ and ‘blood on your hands’, further adding to the restorative Americana-type feel that’s present in both songs. That being said, there’s a British twang in the vocal that reminds me a lot of the solo Ducking Punches sound.

Arms & Hearts are touring with Chicago’s Andrew Paley, who’s known for similar heart-on-your-sleeve folk stylings. Make a date for one of the following:

  • 1st December: Manchester, Gullivers
  • 2nd December: Leeds, Singleshot
  • 3rd December: Nottingham, The Angel
  • 5th December: Peterborough, The Ostrich inn
  • 6th December: Brighton, The Pipeline

Fortitude was released on November 20th on Real Ghost Records, and it’s available for pay-what-you-want download from their Bandcamp. Make sure you check out Arms & Hearts on Facebook too.

Review by Sarah Williams.