repomen - Vapour Trails

RepoMen

Vapour Trails
Phantom Power Records; 2013

3.8 out of 5

By Ethan Skelton

RepoMen bring a retro sound, but in a new way. A little bit of old with some new is a popular scene and they’ve grabbed a hold because who doesn’t like a splash of The Dream Academy in their bowl of Ramones? This standard four-piece comes to you from across the pond in Sheffield, United Kingdom. They fashion themselves on an eclectically cluttered stage donning vests and beards. Look out.

On their EP Vapour Trails, “Rare Cabriolet” serves as a great introduction with vocals yearning from the 80’s, guitar like video drone, bass dripping with a flanger effect, and solid drums – all part of a complete rock bop anthem. You get the feeling this kind of music is for the smarty-pants in all of us, maybe even the rebel that likes to read, but also tosses bottles out the window. I mean, who knows what Cabriolet is? You’re on Wiki right now. I know it.

“Vicar Street” takes a jazzy detour before the pre-chorus, but at its heart is dance rock with alley club meets dancehall. There’s some sexy tom work to compliment the staple groove we hear in the beginning and bridging verses while the chorus soars above the rest giving off positive vibes that could easily work for an Eco Boost commercial.

On “Vapour Trails” the band dips into more emotional territory with dreamy guitar work atop medium fast drums driven by off beat hat work as if to ensure this was never mistaken for a ballad. We get it, when the lyrics go soft keep the gain up and swallow that 90bpm sir. The chorus showcases more tom work, slightly less sexy this time around, and the drummer puts a crash on 2 for anticipatory satisfaction.

Rounding out this compact collection is nothing else but a sing along ploy revealed from the very start – da dada dadoo. “Ophelia” wants the crowd in on it and rightfully so as sing-a-longs are very happening, as a matter of fact, they don’t even need to be words anymore. Blame it on the pop all you want, we still dig it. Having said that, in this case it’s only effective once the song comes together and the initial confusion resolves. The vocals on the “Ophelia” come across as unordinary as the name. It’s all very reminiscent of the garage band era, just a great song for the trendy youth to jump up and down to.

At first taste, RepoMen seem to stake their claim on a unique musical style. It makes you wonder how many other post new wave alternative punk pop acts are out there going, “Hey, that’s our sound!” Yet however you slice it, the bread is good. Britain is hot with new talent and these guys just might find themselves taking off.

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