polaroids of androids

If you didn't know that Yves Klein Blue were born 'n' raised on the (mean-ish) streets of Bris-bane then you would swear they were dirty London geezers. This EP is chock to the brim of 'sounds like' references to the best (and worst) of the past five years or so of Brit indie pop and all of the NME-powered bastard forms that it has transformed into. It's instantly accessible but also completely disposable music.

Whether or not the band's decision to mimic a successful sub-genre is deliberate or not doesn't make it any less unappealing. The five tracks on this EP sound somewhat like Libertines without the charisma or Arctic Monkey's without the soaking of tough kid British charm. They inject their 'gypsy' influences, that their press releases continually allude to, on the current single Polka and break into some mild tough rock riffs on Silence Is Distance but none of it's believable or backed by any artistic substance.

The EP closes out with an instrumental track called (A Bookend). It's the highlight of the record purely because of the fact there are no painful vocals. It's also a blatant attempt by the band to assure they get classified under the dubious 'alternative' category. The truth is that the brackets that they have decided to wrap around the song title is about as creative as you will see this band get.

Australia has an abundance of original talent and groups that push their own style of music. The fact that this kind of recycled flavour-of-the-month garbage is destined to be successful makes me feel unwell. This is painful music.