March 9, 2009

Album Review: Wake The President

You Can't Change That Boy

7 / 10 Facts about this album:
* 'You Can't Change That Boy' is released on Electric Honey Records, which launched the career of Belle And Sebastian and is partly run by students of Stow College.
* Wake The President are Erik Sandberg (vocals), Bjorn Sanberg (guitar), Mark Corrigan (bass) and Scott Sieczkowski (drums).
* 'You Can't Change That Boy' was produced by ex-Delgados drummer Paul Savage.

Album review:
Wearing their post-punk influences firmly on their sleeves, Wake’s debut is sticky with the sheen of the Postcard Records era. Guitarist Bjorn’s uplifting melodies on ‘Miss Tierney’, ‘Remember Fun?’ and title track ‘You Can’t Change That Boy’ bear the unmistakable jangly watermark of Orange Juice’s James Kirk, while hovering below the surface of the band’s ebullient melodies, his twin brother Erik’s tales of debauchery and deception in Glasgow’s West End are reminiscent of the melancholic ’70s indie pop intellectuals Josef K and The Go-Betweens. Although not ground-breaking, each track glimmers with all the existential angst of an art student with a nasty hangover.

Tessa Harris

Wake The President

Wake The President MySpace

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Average rating

9.6

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