Hoodoo Scoundrels - EP 2

There’s a unique kind of frustration in listening to a band that you know – just know – have the potential to be very good indeed. So it is with Hoodoo Scoundrels, who have no shortage of enthusiasm or skill, but not quite enough drive to make them stand out from the lumpen musical masses.

There are high points on the London-based four-piece’s second EP. Vocalist Ned Wyndham sounds like a gravel-gargling Luke Kook on ‘The Witch Song’, with Red Hot Chili Peppers-esque “woo woos” – but the winsome cheek of the harmonies sadly isn’t sustained by the plodding pace rest of the song. The swooping chorus of EP highlight ‘A Touch Far’ mends things somewhat, with a Bromhead’s Jackety sprightliness, but the blues-lite overwrought lovesickness of ‘57 Million To 1’ doesn’t entirely convince (and segueing into cod-reggae halfway though doesn’t help matters either).

Jittery closer ‘Shame On You’ is serviceable; but the entire EP suffers from its own OK-ness. The lyrics are par for the course, the vocals catch the ear, the guitars are actually pretty fantastic – but Hoodoo Scoundrels lack the guts to take their good qualities and use them to create something genuinely distinctive and fresh. You just want to take the stabilisers off their bike and push them out into the world. Hopefully, they’ll grow to do that for themselves.