A laddish-looking, chirpy Liverpool band paying homage to their sixties heroes with well-crafted, guitar laden pop. Hardly a shocking proposition is it?
Shack, however, manage to avoid accusations of dragging on the coat-tails of their more successsful scouse brethren by delivering music that’s a tad more intricate than most of the stuff currentlycoming out of the ‘Pool. Tunes like Sgt Major and Stranger bring to mind no one so much as the Kinks: they’re whimsical, acoustic-driven vignettes, full of wordy, self-deprecating humour and peculiarly English references.
But Shack aren’t bookish intellectuals. I Know You Well is a simple, almost banal beast that plunders Revolver period Beatles and ends up sounding brilliantly radio-friendly. Up, meanwhile, is the band’s closing masterstroke, a drawn-out piece that succeeds in sounding like Herman’s Hermits playing Sister Ray. It’s loud and pretty grungy, but Shack’s melodic prowess drags it back to popsville with a vengeance.
The crowd seem a little confused.
