Count Your Lucky Stars have been responsible for some of my favourite releases of the last few years, none more so than Annabel’s ‘Youth In Youth’. Their 2012 album was layered in huge melodies, patient build ups, and some really life affirming breakdowns. Add this to Dowsing’s slightly awkward but enjoyable emo-rock and you should have a really solid release.  So to put it bluntly… I was really damn excited for this split EP. Unfortunately these nine minutes have left me hugely disappointed and questioning the need for the release in the first place.
Annabel’s ‘Always’ is the strong point, and on a very similar vein to what made their album so brilliant. It’s a considered build up that’s stacked with excellent guitar riffs and a really light and summery vibe. In contrast their second track, ‘Always’, is a reimagined version of album closer ‘Our Days Were Numbered’ but with a distinctly garage punk uplift. It’s trashy, far quicker, and as a result just doesn’t work for me. If anything it made me go back to their album mid-track and enjoy that again rather than continue here.
Dowsing on the other hand drop heavy hints to bands like Jets To Brazil and The Appleseed Cast in their lyrics, but unfortunately don’t radiate the same appeal here. They sound flat throughout and there is little to excite me in ‘Fistful Of Hot Wheels’. ‘World’s Finest Chocolate’ is livelier but again doesn’t really inspire – it’s standard emo-rock with deliberately low end production and at this stage it feels like there are better choices out there in the genre.
I think that’s my overwhelming feeling coming out from this split. You can hear better bands and better tracks from not only this label, but a number of others. Emo-rock’s ‘revival’ has been well publicised and its lead to far more exposure in the genre, and a huge amount of vinyl being produced too. As a result it’s starting to become over saturated and one look at the stock levels on Count Your Lucky Stars order page for this EP will show you that it isn’t exactly flying out of the stores. Don’t get me wrong – huge praise should be given to this label for their work and their faith in these bands, but this split just adds very little here.