Actress Hands - Half an Hour (Life is Easy)
3/5
By: Charlie Potter
It's about time we saw some artists emerge audibly influenced by Graham Coxon's more recent, noticeably up beat dabbling, and this song has not only the basic sound of Coxon but is also influenced by a lot at the edges of his dynamic, including grungy old school punk and weird cute nineties pop. At times Actress Hands are in danger of being a little too nineties North American dull-pop rock, but they're saved by some really satisfying off key rock chords. You know - the type that go umph.
Alas, out of all doing something similar, it always seems to be the boring up 'emselves bands that make it big. So, it's up to all of us to turn this trend around. This means not sticking your nose up at bands just because they're fast and not wholly serious, worthy, or boring, droll and probably dead inside. Just think about it - going to summer festivals and rather than seeing all the over hyped nonsense and staring at the crowd with contempt, actually seeing bands concentrating on rocking out, bands trying to play their songs that little bit faster than on the CD rather than worrying about how they're missing the string section. Don't get me wrong. Don't. I like studio albums, and I enjoy bands being arrogant, but from watching Karate Kid over the weekend I listened to the words of Mr. Miyagi and learned that in all things there must be a balance.
I will warn you however that in the case of Actress Hands, you have heard this before. Don't go thinking that they'll be as good as Graham Coxon. That'd be silly. But they certainly do share his need for energy in music. You could say that liking music for its energy alone is a bad reason to like it, but readers, this is not the point. This is a rock band. Energy can only be a positive.
Artists in this article: Actress Hands
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