They say you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression, and The Longest Time, the debut EP from Laura Musgrave, is instantly engaging, accessible, infectious, and sonically charismatic. Okay, she has had a few singles out, most notably ‘Crumbs’, which opens the EP, but if you’d written such a cracker of a song, you would want it out in the world as soon as was humanly possible; these five songs are where we really get to meet the fully sonically rounded artist.
Yes, ‘Crumbs’ comes roaring in on a tsunami of power-pop-punk energy, scything guitars and sheer contagion, a riot of low-slung guitars and fist-in-the-air anthemics. The title track is more measured, more composed, yet no less revelling in everything modern rock ‘n’ roll has to offer. It’s big, it’s clever, it is where the genre is at, modernity riding roughshod over tradition, the fresh blending with the familiar.
‘Inevitably’ reminds me slightly of the blonde pop movement of the late eighties, that perfect collision of fuzzed-out guitars and pop anthems, raucousness and melody, a sound that made household names (well, in my house at least) of bands like Transvision Vamp, The Primatives and The Darling Buds.
‘Blood On My Tongue’ hits that sweet spot between pop and hard place, between melody and muscle, lyricism and stadium-ready rock energy, a song with something to say and a sonic delivery system powerful enough to take your head clean off and ‘We Can’t Lose’ takes us out with the same energy that the EP rode in on, a wave of euphoric pop-punkery, although with a decidedly British vibe, and garage-rock groove, a deft dance at the collision point between the incendiary and the infectious.
As I said, first impressions matter…consider me enthralled!
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