Earlier this year, when talking about his band’s single ‘To Die For’, Bohicas frontman Dominic McGuinness told NME, “There’s one bit about a fake gun and that’s the only bit that lyrically for me is any good or exciting, so we underlined it with a four-part harmony.” McGuinness’ apparent lack of enthusiasm is reflected in the entirety of debut album ‘The Making Of’. The Essex quartet are all leather jackets and open shirts and align themselves with the grimy aesthetic of graphic novels like Sin City, but dig underneath the riffs and saucy swagger and there’s not a lot going on that’s particularly exciting or more than just ‘good’.
Following in the footsteps of the singer’s brother Eugene, the band signed to Domino at the tail end of 2013 and released choppy double AA-side single ‘XXX’/’Swarm’. It’s obvious which four rough’n’ready lads the label was aiming to repeat the success of. But where Arctic Monkeys were overflowing with ideas from the moment they released ‘I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor’ in 2005, things seem more of a stretch for The Bohicas.
Produced by Mark Rankin (Queens Of The Stone Age), Chris Hughes (Tears For Fears) and Oli Bayston (Toy), their debut feels like an exercise in ticking boxes rather than thinking outside of them. ‘Girlfriend’ laces anodyne lyrics about a lady McGuinness can’t tame (“And you still won’t pick up the phone/Location unknown/Where do you go?”) over a stomping Royal Blood-lite beat. ‘Red Raw’ unashamedly channels Nirvana’s ‘Lithium’ and the title track plods inoffensively on a pulsing bassline, its only truly memorable moment arriving when the carefully-coiffed singer delivers the line “You’re a sucker for a guy on guitar”. Ouch.
Frustratingly, flashes of the wired energy that got them noticed in the first place are few and far between. ‘Upside Down And Inside Out’ is an untameable slice of bawdy rock’n’roll and ‘I Do It For Your Love’ is an exciting glimpse of the rowdy noise they’re capable of. Its chorus – which ironically features an energetic four-part harmony – is possibly the album’s finest moment. Ultimately though, the fact that those early singles are the most obvious standouts speaks volumes about ‘The Making Of’. If The Bohicas aren’t even excited by their own music, how is anyone else supposed to be?