London four Silvery take already been drawing deserved attention for their cautiously crafted and craftily curated forays into musical eccentricity of an especially British kind.
They are this year's Darkness, though it has to be aforesaid they discharge themselves with bucketfuls more sophistication than the Queen-wannabes. The cover of Thunderer And Excelsior, Silvery's 14-track debut, features the silhouette of a gas mask-wearing man in a plug hat hat with a gun and a lance sitting on what looks suspiciously like a polo gymnastic horse. Yes, they're that bats!
Silvery are unabashed around acknowledging their eclectic musical references � 'from Bowie, Blur, Sparks to XTC'. They could just as easily suffer mentioned Ten Pole Tudor, Madness and even Nirvana (assuming the gurus of grunge had ever toyed with the idea of Happy Hardcore). If TISWAS had been a ring rather than a TV show, this is how it would have sounded.
The sheer defenseless affrontery of it is appealing. Strangely, it induces happiness. Perhaps it's the giddy noticeableness, the intoxicating amphetamine drive, or the incontestably infectious conviction of it all? Silvery ar The Kinks for the Sunny D generation.
You won't have to send for Forensics to recognise the musical DNA that drips from every note: Sparks are here throughout and after the scuzzy guitar intro of the opener, Horrors, at the point where the Ron Mael-strom keyboard kicks in, you�ll find yourself anchored into the worryingly accelerated heartbeat of Silvery.
That said, there's an undeniable charm (or grating irritation if you're that style inclined) about listening to a track like the operatically-structured Revolving Sleepy Signs, which starts with a drunken pastiche of Queen before moving into Fun Boy 3 territory via XTC en route to the hallucinogenic-tinged world of Bowie at his Ziggy peak to conclude in a resplendently gregarious mess hall of sounds. This is perfect last-hour-at-the-school disco material.
Enough said. Silvery won't fight to regain an audience for this deliciously chutzpah-saturated debut. Whether they can develop to keep it, may well prove to be some other matter.
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