From the jangly guitar and tambourine intro, it is abundantly clear that The Raid are here for indie summer fun, pure and simple – a bit like a child’s paddling pool: shallow, noisy, joyful but not to everyone’s taste.
Not that it’s roots don’t lie in strange soil. The riff sounds like offcuts of Radiohead and the Zutons and the whole thing is made seamless by the constant stomp of the drums that exhibit no change in pace between verse and chorus. They do get to stretch their legs in the bridge though, so you can’t pity them too much.
Also adding to the continuity is Adam Robinson’s wail, a cross between Thom Yorke, Ian Brown and Kelly Jones, but stretched over the song like cat gut… still attached to the cat. Cue elongated and random vowel sounds (he makes the word ‘time’ extend over nearly three bars and ‘why’… well, some things just shouldn’t happen to an adverb). Vaguely annoying, but definitely rock and roll, and if you’re gonna attempt to get away with a line like “On a scale of one to ten, I’ll give you a four”, you’ve gotta be rock and roll.
Boozy, silly and old time big time, on a scale of one to ten… naw, I’m not going to fall into that trap. If you like the Zutons and Primal Stones… sorry, Scream, this ain’t a bad little summer companion.
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