Five O’clock Heroes – Skin Deep (Glaze Records)
4/5
By: Alex Lee Thomson
Looking through pinking hypnotic eyes you can see that the UK born, US developed Five O'clock Heroes have a striking resemblance to current underground bands such as The Rifles and The On Offs, but what they've got that could spit them half a gob in front is a dexterity that would lend itself more to The Strokes than anything British. That could be because, despite the fact frontman Anthony Ellis was raised in Northampton, so we're told, this band is straight out of New York and has such enjoyed the plunges of a scene that's as rich as the deep dark infested intestines of a hundred year old goldfish... if you care to imagine.
Their album came out last year, but didn't do anything more than make a few retro boys and girls twist their heads in some kind of befuddlement. But here we are, many months later, still talking about them and their latest single 'Skin Deep'. One explanation for their recent omnipresence is that people searching Google for the telly show 'Skins' might have been forwarded to information about this tune, but it's a long shot. The second and more credible, and tangible, reason is that this song has something special about it. It's not the best on the album, we have 'Anybody Home' for that, but it is still darn well infectious and shines like a light emerging from a phosphorescent dawn reflected into a heart of a distracted effervescence.
It's bumpy yet charming and it doesn't matter that you can slate the arse off it for conforming to an already emerging UK sound as thanks to its American upbringing it slides outside of anything else going on around these parts. This is one of the best times for British music and as such we've forgotten to gaze back the Atlantic to see what's bubbling around, and most people have skimmed right past this fantastic band that have as many good tunes as The Killers and as much vigour as The Jam. They're battling the rest of our local talents and coming out on top with the beauty of flowers from heaven on a winters day layered onto the filthiest grind-riffs this side of pre-punk.
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