The Singles Jukebox

#indieamnestyamnesty

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[4.57]

Iain Mew: The recent British social media outpouring of #indieamnesty memories grew to encompass a spread of music from a decade or so ago with a rather broad definition of indie. Scouting for Girls have somehow become emblematic of landfill indie despite being a different, even worse, thing. One name I didn’t see come up was the arguably no less indie Keane. Perhaps they have been forgotten altogether. Except! Here come Nothing But Thieves with a combination of choirboy vocals and glossy song construction that sounds just like Keane’s second album rock moment. The positive difference is that it’s a less obvious U2 rip off, but the negative one is that they don’t really come up with any good hooks of their own.
[5]

Cassy Gress: Confusingly, the Nothing But Thieves of the verses here is not the same Nothing But Thieves of the chorus. The verse band sounds like a group who heard the Kaiser Chiefs’ “Ruby” and then were too self-conscious to let it rip; the chorus band is them a few years in the future, having worked up the nerve. Conor Mason’s falsetto is a bit weak and his “Down, down, down” doesn’t match the more aggressive guitars, not to mention “trip” sounds a lot like “drip.” What do they do when the lights go down? The song sounds like they go party and rock out and shit, but the actual lyrics sound like power outages and loss of technology are a bad thing.
[4]

Alfred Soto: I should have more patience with this well-crafted sort of thing, but if you’re going to build another well-crafted thing make sure it’s a well-crafted thing painted in an unexpected color.
[4]

Will Adams: The switch is apparently from the verse to the chorus, when mush-mouthed nothings explode into enjoyable crunch-pop. The best move here is the “down down down” hook that actually vaults up an octave and a half, but the rest of the song fails to make an impression like that.
[5]

Claire Biddles: I’m such a sucker for the grimey, glue-y guitar sound that opens this, and the “trip/switch” refrain promises to lead somewhere murky and hot, so it’s a disappointment when the chorus drops the build-up entirely. This feels like the kind of music that straight teenage boys like because it’s abstractly sexual without relating to actual sex or femininity. It comes as no surprise that Nothing But Thieves have been supporting Muse on tour. 
[3]

Brad Shoup: An anesthetized grouchiness: the guitar is coaxed toward beauty. Unfortunately, the singer sounds like Jeff Buckley, who was a chore. When he’s fixated on phrases, the effect is mitigated, and the result is road-trip rock.
[5]

Katherine St Asaph: A bit of whatever-passes-for-alt-rock now with one trick(-switch): making teensy dormouse vocals come off as rock diffidence. Honestly, I’m just happy it isn’t the Black Keys.
[6]