Blood Red Shoes - Fire Like This

Some would say that less is more. We’re sure that Laura-Mary Carter and Steven Ansell would agree; Blood Red Shoes make a hell of a lot of noise for a two-piece.

They probably subscribe to the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ school of thought too. Their take on that particular old saying, going by the sound of their new record would be; ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, just give it a bit of polish and check that it’s still running smoothly’. That’s exactly what the Brighton-based band have done with ‘Fire Like This’.

Things pick up from where they left off on 2008 debut ‘Box of Secrets’, with the thundering opening salvo of ‘Don’t Ask’ and the album’s second single ‘Light It Up’. Both tracks indicate that the band’s sense of melody is very much intact, flying in the face of reports that they lost their ear for a tune while recording the album. While it must be admitted that only a handful of tracks on ‘Fire Like This’ could be called ‘instant’, the hooks are definite once discovered.

By far the best thing about this record is its running order. ‘Fire Like This’ is incredibly cohesive, defined by the incredible five-song run that starts with ‘It Is Happening Again’ (a song that features one of the best choruses the duo have written to date) and moves through Blood Red Shoes stadium-rock (album highlight, ‘When We Wake’); a song where the group manage to out do Bloc Party (‘Keeping It Close’); a brilliant slice of garage-pop (‘Count Me Out’) and the post-punk riot of ‘Heartsink’. It’s a sequence that gets better with every listen.

There’s a slight speedbump with the forgettable ‘Follow the Lines’, before getting back on track with a blistering closing pair. ‘One More Empty Chair’ and the ambitious seven-minute epic ‘Colours Fade’ bring the album to a close in style, the latter throwing up interesting questions about where the band’s sound could be headed next.

This pair make a hell of a lot of noise. They’ve packed a lot of ideas into ‘Fire Like This’, and while it might appear that things haven’t changed in the slightest since ‘Box of Secrets’, the evolution is soon revealed. Say hello to Blood Red Shoes mark 2, and an incendiary second record.