The Little OnesSing SongReview

This EP sounds like someone wanted to order a 6-pack of indie from an online grocery store but ended up ordering £60's worth to make up the minimum order. Seven ‘cuts’ of defiantly cheery, studiedly anti-corporate, proudly organic, supremely Californian guitar-pop with lyrics positioned somewhere between 'uplifting' and ‘vacuous.’

To be honest, they’re weighted firmly toward the latter (as you may guess from titles such as “Cha Cha Cha”). They won’t win any literary prizes. I'm sure The Little Ones would be great live—there's some nice quiet-loud-quiet action here—but the self-awareness that comes as part of the package does them no favours on record. The tunes (as in, the recordings themselves) sound curious; it’s almost like they recorded a bunch of demos, went on to record the ‘real’ versions and then decided they preferred the vibe of the demos (man), and released those instead.

There’s no photo of Uncle Lee’s studio where this was recorded, but I bet you it was a small room smelling of stale fags, ground-in beer and spittle—a perfect environment for indie-mongery. In its favour, there’s some very sophisticated songwriting and arrangement to go with that lo-fi – but perhaps we should hold our collective breath until the first proper album comes out.