Friday, January 06, 2017

Band Review: No Devotion


No Devotion is a mostly Welsh band that I was checking out based on the recommendation of Gerard Way. They turned out to be surprisingly familiar.

Singer Geoff Rickly is formerly of the band Thursday, whom I had just been listening to because of something else I was working on. The other band members - Stuart Richardson on bass, Jamie Oliver on keyboards, and Mike Lewis and Lee Gaze on guitars - had previously been together in Lostprophets. Their band's dissolution shattered many of my younger friends. While there's no question about whether that breakup was the right thing to do, it's nice to know that it wasn't the end.

One possible band influence listed is The Cure. I can kind of hear that, but right as I was typing that I am listening to "Stay", and the way the beat tracks, and I just think No Devotion is funkier.

Where I can see the resemblance more is in an often similar sense of yearning, which is there. Still, without being so completely grounded in Robert Smith's psyche, No Devotion ends up sounding a bit more extraterrestrial. My mental image was that these are sounds carried over space winds to your cosmic radio, which may make the yearning more poignant.

Permanence is a very good album, but don't neglect checking out "Only Thing" which appears to be the B-side for "10,000 Summers".



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