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Sugar Army - Where Do You Hide Your Toys

Over the past few years Perth's Sugar Army have been slowly plugging away, scoring themselves solid support slots and moving towards this, the logical next step in their career, a debut release. Even with their slow buildup of momentum it still seems as though they have arrived on the local scene with the kind of explosive burst normally reserved for a 'indie' band which has been thrust forward by a major label as the 'next big thing'. Their debut EP, however, has been released by new Perth independent label, Good Cop Bad Cop, and the press they have received, seems to be solely on the back of their music.

Sugar Army's deliver crisp and precise rock. Every neatly packaged track on this EP, all of which run from three-and-a-half to four-and-a-half minutes, showcase the groups ability to deliver their style of mildly theatrical rock numbers in the form of instantly appealing radio friendly pop-rock. Their music isn't offensively bad, but it's just far too shallow and void of any truly original creative input.

The radio single, ...And Now You're Old Enough, I Think That You Should Know, which opens up the EP, commands the attention of the listener with aggression. The predictable structure of the song, however, destroys the wild and untamed mood that the band appear to have been aiming for. The rest of the EP follows a similar pattern, with the band sounding slightly restraining by their own music. While on several occasions Sugar Army border on expressing themselves with a fiery attitude that might just have the power to burst out of the speakers and slap you around, they continually shyly retreat and hide behind formulaic dance-rock elements at the last minute.

The third track, Maybe The Boy Who Cried Wolf Was Just Paranoid, which we featured on a podcast episode sometime last year, is still their shining moment. It borders on Wolf-Zeppelin territory with the large guitar sounds, however, their decision to leave some of the rawer moments in, mix things up with a tribal-like intro and express some emotion instead of sprinkling it with the radio shine makes it a standout.

To put a blunt point on it, Sugar Army have piled together some songs that are about as creative as the output of a kindergarten art class. If you like your music with any form of substance, then these guys probably aren't for you.