The Sounds - Something To Die For

If you were to put on a Sounds album at that point where a party kicks up a gear – usually about 2am – when the conversation and flirting is over and it’s time to get down and dirty, you probably wouldn’t get many complaints. Their vacuous power-pop has beats, hooks and sometimes enormous choruses that demand to be sung at the top of your voice. It is, however, somewhat ironic that one of their better songs is called ‘Painted By Numbers’, as that seems exactly how they go about creating their tunes.

‘Something To Die For’ is, in that regard, no different, ticking every box on their checklist. Stop start synth line circa 1985? Check! Dramatic pause right before the chorus kicks in? Check! Slower, moodier middle eight followed by a big finish? Check! Even lyrically, they continue to dissect serious relationships and the trials and tribulations of true love, with Maja Ivarsson here imploring ‘Don’t say goodbye / Just leave an open door / I wanna hear you say / You give me something to die for’. Heavy shit indeed.

So all very pleasant in a upbeat, put-it-on-whilst-you-do-the-ironing kind of way, but the frustrating thing is that, after over ten years together, this is all they can come up with. Ivarsson has a great set of pipes, but they are capable of so much more than simply belting out huge choruses or climbing ever higher up the scales. The intro, a slower, haunting guitar solo over atmospheric synths gives a glimpse of a genuinely interesting future, something you think has potential… before you’re jolted back to reality with a thud ad those all too familiar stylings. I’m quite sure they’re capable of more, if only they could snap out of their comfort zone. As it is, this is two minutes too much of something we’re not even sure we like anymore.