Album Review

Kids In Cars – Blimey, Crumbs!

• 12th May 2009

The brand of indie-pop purveyed by Kids in Cars on their debut EP differs from what one might expect from the Leicester quartet. For a start, there’s James Stafford’s vocals. Crooning out lovesick lines in a sort of Thom Yorke-esque fashion, Stafford dispenses with the shouty quirkiness that’s been popular lately and renders a lot of bands indistinguishable from one another. Yes, it does grate a tad at times, but it’s for the most part pleasingly original.

Pick of the three tracks is “So it goes”, with its stop-start riffage that recalls early Futureheads and prettily-harmonised lead guitar and vocals on the chorus. It’s also the most accessible track on what is an uncompromising release; the last song, “Anything & Everything”, for example, dedicates most of its sprawling five minutes forty-nine purely to the intstruments. Fortunately, there’s enough going on in the music to keep it from dragging and the chorus, when it does show its face, is a good one. Blimey, Crumbs! is a refreshing, ambitious stab at an EP; the Kids are all right.