Once in a while a band come along that you have to double check the year to see if you have accidently been given an old album to review. I had to check that Onward Chariots were a modern band as their music has an extremely vintage (in a good way) feel to it.
Listening to the album reminded me so much of 70’s British Progressive rockers Caravan that I had to make sure that it wasn’t them releasing an album under a pseudonym (it also made me dig out my old copy of In The Land Of Grey And Pink to reminisce). But back to Onward Chariots, the band are from New York and have a gift for producing beautiful melodic music that has a bubbly carefree smoothness about it that you just can’t help liking.
On the bands website they describe themselves as indie-pop, and although tracks like Mel Gibson and Get Me Out Of This Party are poppy feel good tunes, I felt that the whole album has a roundedness that takes the best elements of a verity of genres and moulds them into something quite unique. I rareley listen to anything label Indie-pop but I listened to this album before reading anything about the band to make up my own mind (standard for me) and I pitched it as a modern prog effort without the twelve minute tracks! Anyway I loved this album and it’s been on the iTunes playlist whilst I’m working since I received it. Top class.
For fans of Caravan, The Beach Boys and Teenage Fanclub.
Link
http://onwardchariots.com/
Words by Dan O’Gara.
