DELAMARE - Imaginary Things EP
Delamare have been together for less than a year and have already rocketed out of Adelaide with a disc full of action-packed superficial teen-love guitar pop.
This five-piece have a target lock on the tweeners, and their EP would do the business for any commercial rock fans who aren’t past their early 20s. It has a slick sound, thanks to a former producer of Faker and Kisschasy, Luke Gerard-Webb.
The opener Your Favourite Song kicks off with the line “Baby I’ve got something to ask you girl”, and the boy-meets-girl theme rides a wave of energy over five songs until the EP closes with “… this feeling of love is something new.”
They get serious for a moment on track four, Little White Lies. Don’t panic though; there are no actual issues on the table lyrically, it’s more in the tune’s feel. Clocking in at under three minutes, it gives you stop/start riffing to fill space between the all-out minor-key choruses, where singer Matt Khabbaz asks you a few searching questions. He answers the first one for you, kindly saving you the trouble of thinking, while giving you a hint as to how to respond to the others. The whole thing is capped off with a piercing metallic guitar solo.
Other than that moody moment the EP is all yeah-baby teen anthems, with a few short piano moments thrown in for a hint of weightiness.
This disc has the solid arranging and production needed to make age-old pop songs sound fresh. A steady supply of rhythmic tweaks and tone-twists are there to keep peoples’ ears hooked with constant change, otherwise they’ll twig to having heard these tracks from ten other artists in the last few years.
This is hardly a crime; it has been ever thus. There are only so many killer choruses in the world; everybody has heard them a million times and the challenge is presenting them in a way that suits your format.
Imagine you’re a director having to film only a brick wall for a three-minute movie; you won’t just bung a camera in front of it – you set up crane-shots zooming in and out, wide-swept tracking shots, close-ups along the length of the mortar lines and some shifting slo-mo footage to add gravitas.
The resulting short film would be a visual feast, but the art is all in the presentation, not the bricks. Walls are a dime a dozen.
The Delamare boys and their sound-guru have done exactly what they needed to do.
The effort put into Imaginary Things is to be admired; this EP has songs that are undeniably radio-friendly. They may be predictable but they don’t stand still for a moment. Other bands in the genre could steal a few tricks here.Closing track Numbers is a definite highlight; it could be the perfect graduation anthem for the upcoming leavers’ summer of destruction. It’s a catchy masterpiece of singalong theatre, with the plotline of a pantomime, just in time for Christmas.
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Review by Jeff Walker
BELOW IS ANOTHER 'Imaginary Things' EP REVIEW:
EP: Delamare - Imaginary Things
Posted on Thursday, 06 November 2008 @ 15:15:30 by
Leisa HowlettReviewed by Samantha Hagaman
Imaginary Things is five piece pop rock group Delamare'sdebut EP. The quintet formed early this year in Adelaide, and for afledgling band, their offering is surprisingly cohesive and realised.The EP kicks off with their debut single, Your Favourite Song, then slides into the title track Imaginary Things.Both songs are good enough to be common radio fodder, with Matt Khabbaz(vocals/guitar) delivering a strong performance, well supported by therest of the Delamare gang.
A quick look at Delamare's Myspace shows their friend quota alreadyover the ten-thousand mark, and listening to their EP, one can guesswhy. There are some riffs that'll make your ears prick in curiosity atwhat this band could morph into with a few more years under its belt.The electronically modified voice licks at the end of phrasing is notentirely unwholesome either. The closest thing they sound like isKisschasy (both bands are managed by Melodic Music Management's SamPanetta), although Dom Symes' backing on keys also gives the band asound similar to Panic! at the Disco.
Admittedly, there are moments of teen, kitsch lyrics; Delamare domarket themselves as pop rock after all. At least you know what you'rein for. Pop lyrics also equal infectious lyrics; sweet yet subtle vocalharmonies by backups Dom Symes and Matt's twin bro Michael (how like,totally Good Charlotte), make this CD suitable to sing along to in thecar, without you sounding like a totally tone-deaf loser to passers-by.The fourth track, Little White Lies, is a lovely blend of sounds, with some electronically modified stuff in there, and a catchy and upbeat tempo.
A tight package, this EP raises hopes that Delamare will go a lot further than just being a support act for Idol winners.
Delamare tour nationally Oct-Dec 2008.
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