That Was Something‘s recent EP, ‘Down But Not Out’ reminded me of a Mae or The Rocket Summer. This earlier album, now released on Oort, is much poppier and less focused on synth and keys. It’s a catchy beast mind you, even if it is the type of record you’d swear you had heard a dozen times before. By a dozen different bands.
And therein lies the problem with TWS, and any other similar band playing this brand of music. It’s now a genre so saturated that bands find it ever more difficult to stand out from the pack. And while songs like ‘The Wedding’ and ‘Revenge’ are perfectly adequate with catchy riffs and plenty of singalongs, there’s nothing here which grabs me and makes me think I’ll be listening to them next month, let alone next year. That Was Something are the kind of band you check out when you’re excited for new music, only to pick up a CD and leave it to gather dust on the shelf over the longer term. It’s good, but far from great.