Now you'd think that, in the light of recent and past live concerts by Dundee's Dave? that there's no way they're going to be able to create the intensity and electricity of their performance on a studio based CD - and you'd be right. HOWEVER.....this 4-tracker is very close to giving you the levels of excitement and firepower that characterise the best performances from this band.
The first 3 tracks follow a similar pattern of lightning fast chiming riffs and lead guitars, with the opener "Don't Die Zipper" full of fast choppy staccato riffs and rhythms as the vocals are right upfront, rising and falling with all the intensity and angst of the instrumental work, as the whole thing careers headlong into the briefest of guitar breaks before the main body of th song returns to speed us on to the end. I'd say that the vocal were too upfront at the expense of the backing and that the backing needs to be more fiery and dirty. "If I Only Had A Quid" goes some way to corecting this, sounding quite similar to the first but with more of an edge, more cutting and nearer to recreating the magic that the band can muster on a good liver performance. The hook is there, but the song is so fast that separating it from the rest is pretty well impossible, while another short but sharp break for the briefest of guitar leads, this time occurs at the end.
"Indecision" is the very closest sounding to the band at its best, the instrumentation altogether more urgent and closer to the front with the wickedly hammering drumming and pounding bass well in evidence as the guitars rage and swirl, the pace still fast but this time spot on in terms of its arrangement, while the vocals sound more fraught and dangerously close to The View, part of which is why this is easily the finest track on the whole EP by a long way, and a real winner - THIS should have been the opener!! A sterling stunner of a track and worth the price of the CD on its own.
The last track is acoustic, emotive, expressive, lyrically intelligent and, sadly, utterly pointless. It adds nothing to the Dave? magic, doesn't exactly reveal the band as the best when it comes to stripped down acoustic angst and simply sounds and feels like an afterthought taged on to an otherwise strong set of tracks.
Overall, a winner, but not really reflective of just how good this band can sound live. Still, there's always that incendiary third track - now, you run off while I play it one more time.