exlovers – Blowing Kisses

‘Blowing Kisses’ by London-based band exlovers isn’t a bad pop record. The problem: it’s not very memorable. In order to stand head and shoulders above all the other hitmaker wannabes in the indie pop world, you need to stand out. Like the act it’s describing, ‘Blowing Kisses’ is ephemeral, much like the spring breeze.

And actually, spring is a good way to describe the song because while it’s sunny and pleasurable, it’s just not substantial. It’s the musical equivalent to an ice cream. You enjoy it while it lasts, but will you remember what flavour it was come tomorrow? No. Instrumentally, there are no major faults. The guitars rock from the get-go and have a nice, shoegazey quality. The drums take a moment in the spotlight during the bridge, indicating the percussion could definitely been less hohum throughout. But alas…

So you are left wondering where and how far the instrumentation could have gone instead of standing in the background while the words take centre stage. Sort of. The lyrics aren’t distinctive either, and after a while, the melody starts to grate. A song like this makes it easy to separate exlovers from, say, Belle and Sebastian.