Morning Parade - Morning Parade

The wave of buzz ridden by five man outfit Morning Parade shows there’s more to Essex than TOWIE. Time spent supporting the likes of Coldplay and 30 Seconds To Mars has led to a debut just as sleek and anthemic: the result of a year’s labour spent at Damon Albarn’s 13 Studio with long time Blur collaborator Jason Cox.

Opener ‘Blue Winter’ sparks images, not of the cold season, but of neon winters where surges of electricity stir the blood: the static of guitars jolt somewhere between the Edge’s own soaring trademark and the adrenaline of ‘Sleeping With Ghosts’ era Placebo. Elsewhere, ‘Speechless’ sprawl is perfect for Coldplay’s generation ‘X & Y’, ‘Headlights’ is a Stereophonics track brought up on a diet of Nineties dance, and when the mid-rave of ‘Under The Stars’ thunderbolts in, Delphic’s ‘Halcyon’ has alarmingly struck once again.

Admittedly, such polished production has blunted what could potentially be quite a sharp band. Case in point: Steve Sparrow’s tales about alcohol abuse on the Air Traffic style breeze of ‘Half Litre Bottle,’ and solidarity on ‘Us & Ourselves,’ do feel less gritty than they could have potentially been. More disappointing perhaps is ‘Monday Morning’ which sounds like Keane trying to cover a Massive Attack song.

Fortunately, there are little glimpses of a dirty taint. Take ‘Running Down The Aisle’ for example. What sounds like an Athlete track soon muddies itself up with a guitar solo recalling the Verve’s Nick McCabe. It provides some much needed tarnish to a record that’s perhaps a little too clean in most places. However, with the makings of a well assembled outfit, the sheen of Morning Parade will no doubt appease the masses, but perhaps in the same way that Tesco does.