Noo Yoiks The Vanguard Villains are a three piece, but you may be questioning your own ears when you hear the fullness and warmth of their sound. They do have a couple of up tempo numbers in their arsenal (due to, i imagine, having to entertain drunk people in little venues), but its in their quieter, subtle, shaded songs where they really, really come into their own. They describe their sound as 'retro', but they occasionally veer more towards 'classic'.
Pick of the bunch (to these ears anyway) is 'Admire', knocking on five minutes of gentle, sophisticated groove. Its the aural equivalent of rubbing your forearm on lush green grass on a beautiful summers day after enjoying half a bottle of wine. Its a 'quiet-verse-louder-chorus' number, but resists going all Nirvana and is all the better for it. Admirably ambitious.
'Fade' is a slinky and sedate. The sometimes harsh lyrical matter (i wish i had a home/i wish i broke your bones) is a silver pin bursting the balloon of the music. Dreamy in the right way, this is the sound of a band who have done it all before.
'Insidious' is throbby and dreamy and reflective, with a huge hearted chorus that's JUST the right side of fuzzy. Sleek with riffs in all the right places, its hearty and benignly heroic. Great stuff.
Anyone on a long drive through somewhere hilly could do worse than checking out 'Unexecuted', a gorgeous, pastoral near instrumental thats both acoustic and satisfying, (which, lets be fair, is something of a rarity)that goes pleasingly bonkers at the end.
The Vanguard Villains-Talented without going muso, well worthy of a listen.
http://www.myspace.com/thevanguardvillains
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