SUCH GOLD and A LOSS FOR WORDS aren’t two bands you’d immediately put together to release a split EP. Despite both bands being pop punk at their core, they’re arguably on opposite ends of the genre spectrum in terms of sound. Thankfully, both bands play off each other’s strengths wonderfully on the split and that doesn’t actually matter at all.
Kicking off the first half of the release is SUCH GOLD. First song ‘Scoreboard’ is huge – Ben Kotin’s vocals are shouted back to you in the biggest possible way and the good vibe lyrics that people have come to expect from the band are present in abundance, while ‘Backyard’ picks up right where ‘Scoreboard’ left things off, with the opening verse essentially daring you to punch the air in joy.
Secondly, and having released full length ‘No Sanctuary’ a couple of months back, A LOSS FOR WORDS would have been forgiven for chucking a couple of b-sides into this release and getting on with promoting the album, but such is the quality coming from this band at the moment that both songs stand up easily to anything on the album. In particular, ‘America Needs a New Sweetheart’ is a joy from start to end, and ‘Thomas Vs Luongo’ is a ferocious two and a half minute burst with a nice big chorus to wrap things up nicely.
Telling the story of two bands at very different points in their careers, this split EP provides two things; a nice whetting of the appetite for the forthcoming debut album from Such Gold and a great big reminder that A Loss For Words really are at the very top of their game.
CHRIS MARSHMAN