Do you ever want to listen to a band purely because of the band's name? Sometimes I do. I did when I had an email asking to review Dover based band Melisandre's Beaver's debut EP No Offence Meant, Plenty Taken. I love Game Of Thrones and I'm fond of furry woodland creatures. Though I wasn't aware that Melisandre had her own pet creature, maybe it's at her home in Asshai. Anyway, let's see if No Offence Meant, Plenty Taken is some good stuff.
The opening song on the four track EP is titled Out Of Time. Out Of Time started out much slower than I anticipated, it is infact more of a 90s indie punk song rather than a full on punk rock assault. I particularly enjoyed the chorus of the song and its brilliant melody. Out Of Time is about feeling stuck where you are in your life and only having one more chance to make a change. The second song on the EP is named That Girl and has a sound that is much more up my street. The tempo is upped for this melodic pop punk number. It's a punchy number lead by a simple, pounding drum beat throughout with a vocal delivery that feels like every line finishes with an exclamation point. I love this no thrills, straight to the point punk rock. That Girl looks at topic of falling for somebody that you know will hurt you eventually. We've sadly all been there! Up next is a song named Get Gary Out. It starts out with a recorded phone call where band members talk about the song title sounding too much like blink-182 so they change the name to Get Gary Out. Here we have another melodic pop punk song that will get itself lodged in your head, it's so damn catchy. It's kind of a random song and I'm really not sure what it's about. I kind of wonder if this was Melisandre's Beaver's plan when they wrote the song when they include the lyrics "You've Clocked He's Not A Person, But Now You're Not Too Sure, A Tat, A Dick, A Fist? Or Maybe Even More?" I have no idea what's going on but I enjoyed the song anyway. The EP's closing song is the one that stuck in my head the most on my first listen. Never Be That Cool is a mid-tempo song with a chorus that catches the ear immediately. It's a song about feeling as if you'll never make it to the level of your heroes. It has some really relatable lyrics about watching some of your favourites on the TV after school and wanting to emulate their success some day. Despite the gloomy nature of the song I actually got quite an upbeat feel from it and it had me smiling and nodding my head throughout. I loved the vocals on the track as well, they suit the song perfectly.
Stream and download No Offence Meant, Plenty Taken here: https://melisandresbeaver.bandcamp.com/releases
Like Melisandre's Beaver here: https://www.facebook.com/MelisandresBeaver/
This review was written by Colin Clark.
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