The Red Sun Band - The Eagle

There seems to have been something of a resurgence within the past few years. When Smashing Pumpkins reformed, released a mediocre album yet still managed to headline Reading it seemed to be the catalyst for the re-emergence of ‘shoegaze’, culminating in the recent run of My Bloody Valentine gigs at the Roundhouse earlier this year.

The Red Sun Band certainly wear their musical hearts on their sleeves. The influence of MBV, Curve et al are plain to see on track ‘The Eagle’ and B side ‘Like An Arrow’. Twin vocalists Sarah and Lizzie Kelly could easily be Bilinda Butcher if MBV had bothered with production values, the layered vocals working well over the stabbing guitar line and military drumming. However, the problem with ‘The Eagle’ is that it doesn’t really do much else. You would expect a song clocking in at 2:38 to be a short, sharp, furious burst of musical energy but ‘The Eagle’ doesn’t soar so much as glide along lazily, half arsed looking for a mouse near death because it can’t be arsed catching one that can, y’know, run and stuff.

It’s pleasant enough but try and remember how the song went, even a minute after listening to it. It’s bloody difficult. Which poses the question: why? ‘The Eagle’ would have been a passable album track but if The Red Sun Band are releasing this as a single, then you’ve got to wonder how much filler is on the album itself. It doesn’t bode well.