Voxtrot - Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives EP (Playlouder)
4/5
By: Kevin Molloy
Sometimes descriptions present themselves that you can't seem to shake from your head: and at times (especially the eponymous opener) this EP comes across as 'Coldplay, but with balls'. It's got the anthemic guitar sounds, the bedwetting intellectual lyrics and those smooth, reaching, yearning melodies. The problem with such nagging descriptions is that they're nothing on the whole story, and this journalist wouldn't link the names of Coldplay and Voxtrot in anything but a superficial way: Voxtrot are much too interesting. It's definitely those tailored, culture-ridden words that find you out though, there's no choice. It's a testament to their quality that you subconsciously search them out, despite the usually effective coverings of excellent melodies and indie-euphoria guitar-work. Perhaps it's the novelty of complexity.
From the jarring, harsh reverberations that announce the opening 'Mothers, Sisters, Daughters and Wives' one might infer a Sonic Youth tune, but it soon all rounds out musically, even if the words maintain their jagged edges. The track isn't such a clear choice for single, though: the competition even on this 5-track EP is heavy. 'Fast Asleep' tackles you straight on with Dismemberment Plan dissociated vocal lines, and 'Soft and Warm' does exactly what it proclaims in the title: the keys fuzz you gently into the midst of the chorus, which slides from the verse with Belle and Sebastian ease and string lines.
Voxtrot sum themselves up perhaps best of all when they sing that "I believe in love - I'm married to my work". Both sides are true, and their dedication shows out, each track is perfectly crafted to a beautiful finished work, and left to shimmer. Individually each would draw our praise, but this EP achieves exactly its intent: it shows us that such gems are not in isolation, and that we should attend Voxtrot's future releases with anticipation.
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