Fanzine - Roman Holiday

There is no sound more comforting than a perfectly crafted and hook filled indie pop song and Londoner’s Fanzine have done just that and more with the gloriously fuzzy ‘Roman Holiday’.

A fabulously big dumb rock riff ushers in a track full of ‘ooohs’ and ‘Doo, Doo, Doo’s’ that cannot fail to put a smile on your face. Of course, it is very redolent of early nineties indie rock and in particular groups like Teenage Fanclub, but when the melodies and song craft is this good it would be churlish in the extreme to complain.

The track is lo-fi and unpolished, but that all just adds to the charm. Fanzine also show that they are not afraid to rock out as they embellish the track with a wonderfully fuzzy guitar solo. It’s really thrilling stuff.

2011 has seen a resurgence of interest in melodic indie rock bands spearheaded by the likes of Fanzine’s tour mates Yuck. A lot of this music can sound blandly derivative, but Fanzine avoid this trap effortlessly. With a melodic pop sensibility as strong as theirs, Fanzine deserve to go places very quickly indeed.