Gambling is cool, everyone knows that. What better way to live than sipping champagne with a gorgeous blonde hanging off your arm whilst you are cleaning out some filthy rich casino guy in Vegas? Well, we can dream I suppose. But The Movielife are sick of dreaming, and they’ve decided to name their latest offering after their favourite hobby.
And boy, oh boy, is ‘Has A Gambling Problem’ a damn fine slick piece of melodic hardcore or what? It does have that Drive-Thru sheen polished all over it, but this is a mighty fine record that will leave you begging, quite literally, for more.
The EP kicks things off rather perilously with ‘Walking On Glass’, complete with thick guitars and cool pick-slides. Vinnie Caruana has a typical Drive Thru style of singing and is able to mix and match pop and hardcore with consumate ease. And with a stomping bounceathon of a chorus, followed by some fine drumming, it makes for a very good opening. With lyrics that could have fallen off the back of any good emo record [“Why can’t I understand what’s inside you, is it just guts and black stuff, I’ll find out soon”] it’s three and a half minutes of quality.
‘Hand Grenade’ explodes through the speakers sounding like a harder Midtown, with the twin guitars of Alex Amiruddin and Brandon Reilly working really well. It does feel like yet another ‘girls suck’ kinda song and you sense that the band really have been hanging out with New Found Glory for too long, but still, I’d much rather listen to this than any other disposable cheesy crap that they play on the radio. “When will she notice me?” Vinnie sings as if he’s come over all reflective. Well, if the band continue to churn out songs like this, then there will be a lot of people sitting up and taking notice of you fella.
‘Up To Me’ is fast, furious and fantastic. It’s really in-yer-face and makes you want to jump up and down on your bed and play air guitar, yet it still keeps that melodic edge that you’ve quickly become accustomed to. It’s not that great lyrically, but hey, we can’t all write like the Get Up Kids can we? Still, it’s foot-tappingly good and that is all I’m bothered about.
But it’s the excellently titled ‘If Only Duct Tape Could Fix Everything’ that is the ace in this pack. A bit softer than the other songs, it is kind of like a crude cross between the Get Up Kids and New Found Glory. If you have a heart and blood pumping through your veins, then you’ll find this a quality little ditty. With lyrics like “I can’t and I won’t let you down, cos you know that I’ll do anything for you,” you know it’s going to be ok. And dynamically it’s good too, with the quiet/loud bits done really well. Along with ‘Letters To You’ by Finch, it’s one of the best songs you’ll never get to hear. And that would be criminal…
EP closer ‘Operate’ sounds scarely like Midtown at the beginning. It’s the same vocal style, the same guitar tone, everything. But it’s still a good track, even if it does strike of being a tad unoriginal. It’s maybe not the best way to end the EP either, but is still certainly worthy of a listen.
The Movielife are currently pretty much unknown in the UK. But that will change if they keep up producing records as good as this. Even though they have that Drive-Thru sound, give this lot a chance to inflict a little bit of their problem on to you…
Paul Savage