The Rebs - In A Heartbeat

Like a lovechild between The Pigeon Detectives and The Kooks (wait!!) road to V Festival winners The Rebs nearly have British indie pop pegged. Despite this unlikely convergence of mediocrity, it has produced some surprising results; a mixed bag, more 9 than 24 carat gold.

Whilst openers ‘Would I Remember’ and ‘Always In A Heartbeat’ are instant singles for a band of this ilk, ‘Keep Smiling’ is as anthemic as it gets, but… hang on a minute, the chorus sounds identical to something The Music might have made back in 2004. Herein lies The Rebs problem: over familiarity. The stronger tracks feel like clones of other indie anthems you vaguely remember. So much so, you can picture different bands performing them. This is quite disconcerting at times, and begs to question whether The Rebs truly have a sound to call their own.

Well, yes they do. Despite this musical déjà vu, they deliver with conviction and more aplomb than any of the aforementioned bands. If The Rebs had been around near on a decade ago they could have made waves on the indie scene. Now, they either need a shed load of luck, or to hone their song writing, taking the reigns and developing their own sound; then they could be something quite special.