Decoration are, without exception one of the most exciting prospects in British popular music today, it really is as simple as that. They have, over the last 18 months or so been slowly, but surely and steadily garnering interest from the media and the public alike, recent months have seen them record a number of radio sessions for todays indie luminaries – Huw Stephens, and the late John Peel have both recorded the band in session whilst they are continual features of Steve Lamacqs playlist and have recently enjoyed support slots with indie guitar stalwarts The Wedding Present. It’s from these little acorns, on this firm foundation that a mighty oak of indie pop is sure to grow.

Escape Routine, a track lifted from their forthcoming album Don’t Disappoint Me Now is an erudite tale of a romance gone wrong, of two people sitting stewing, both knowing that where they are is not where they want to be, but both avoiding facing up to this bitter truth in a vain attempt to keep things nice and simple. We have all been there, we have all done it, but it takes a keen wordsmith from northern England, and a tableau of pulsing rhythms and soaring, gliding, chiming guitars to put it all into context. Decoration manage to take this pitiful scenario and make it utterly compelling, from the incisive, direct and entertaining lyrics to the formidable guitar tracks which desperately try to tame the driving rhythm section before settling neatly into a good old fashioned middle eight as the song launches itself to a thrilling climax which leaves the listener completely at sixes and sevens with the obligatory hairs on the back of your neck stood on end.

Second track Candidate shows off the band firing on all cylinders, it’s an out and out rock and roll cavalcade of aural intensity, unusual time signature, flittering lead guitar lines that are dragged from the six strings and left to float on the breeze with ease, passion and despair. The tempo and intensity never drop throughout the song as it builds to a violent crescendo with thumping bass, sea monster-esque wailing guitars, and pounding toms all coming together perfectly to provide a firm building block for the lyrics, whilst set closer Interested is a slower, more considered affair. The wall of noise that greets the listener soon gives way to a delicate, fragile melody that suits the desolate nature of the lyrics.

“...between the bars and the Hagen Dazs we slipped out of the frame, I never thought we’d make the grade, but I knew one day soon, you’d wake up and think the same...”

The song ebbs and flows between the melodious arpeggios and intense blocks of sonic mayhem leaving the listener totally on edge until the denouement, with the drums crashing and guitars aching it all collapses around your ears and fades into the distance, taking all your hopes and dreams with it...

“...what a friend we have, in theory...”

B-sides and extra tracks were once considered insignificant, essentially a throw-away piece of crap that would be tossed onto the back side of a slab of vinyl without so much as a second thought, because of this people often missed out on such gems as The House of Loves Loneliness is a Gun, or The Smiths Sweet and Tender Hooligan, but with the change in format and cd’s running straight through bands are much more exposed, and it’s a testament to the greatness of Decoration that all three tracks here are worthy title tracks for this record, song writing of this calibre is few and far between, and when it comes along it’s got to be grabbed with both hands and cherished, it’s vital, it’s absolute, it’s Decoration.

As the final track slips away, the overdubbed needle scratching around at the end of a record brings back the memories of all those old days playing vinyl, of the eighties, when as the song says “...they had ‘Electric Dreams’ but I just dreamed of you...”, of leaping around indie discos and hovering over the pause button whilst Peel announced whatever delight was to follow, it all comes back, and I finally realise that it wasn’t all that bad, it wasn't that bad at all.

Warning, this record could change your life.

Click here to buy this record.

Johnny Mac

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