Young for Eternity

My first encounter with the band was around 18 months ago at a gig in Cardiff, which I attended purely on a whim. They were astonishing, with Lunn thrashing about the stage like an electrified whirling-dervish (quite literally bouncing off the walls at some points), and Cooper oozing the sort of rock-chick cool that prompted several enthusiastic propositions from the crowd.

Meanwhile, Morgan, stripped to the waist, went at the drums like Animal from the Muppets made flesh.

I left there convinced I'd witnessed the Next Big Thing(TM), and enthusiastically extolled their virtues to anyone who'd listen. Finally, at long last, the album came out. And it's become rather (gasp) poppy.

There's still a bit of the original swagger in the likes of "Rock & Roll Queen", "1 AM", and "Oh Yeah", all of which have been knocking around for quite a while, but even these older tracks sound like they've been smoothed down when compared with the "taster" CDs that used to be on sale at the gigs.

This isn't necessarily that surprising, but with the sharp edges taken away, it all sounds rather sterile.

Maybe it's a problem of expectation, but I'd assumed The Subways would get the sort of stick-hitting-a-tin-can production of The White Stripes, and instead they got... Ian Broudie? The Lightning Seeds' Ian Broudie?! No wonder it sounds like it's been hit with the pop-tastic stick.

All-in-all then, a bit of a let-down, but still a few glimmers of hope in there. And I just can't help singing along to "Mary"...

After seeing The Subways perform as the support act to Charlotte Hatherly I was hooked, I could not get enough of them, the 2 track demo I had could not meet my needs and I could not wait for the album, a couple of gigs, a few downloads, 2 singles and 10 months later my prayers were answered and out came the album! And I was not disappointed! The songs were still short, the lyrics catchy and the vocals dripping with pure passion and a love of what they do.

The songs have remained mainly the same as the live versions, although the fantastic opening track 'I want to hear what you have got to say ' has had a bit of a lyric change. The album boasts 2 top 25 tracks, ('Oh Yeah' and Rock N Roll Queen') which isn't bad going for a band that 2 years ago were barely out of school! (Actually I think Mary-Charlotte may still have been there, that isn't important though.) Then they were thrown into fame after winning the unsigned bands competition at Glasto, where they then played there again this year.

The stand out track for me has to be 'Mary' which I had heard live and could not wait to own! The song is of course for Billy's wonderful beau (and bassist) Mary-Charlotte. The track is all about young love and the catchy chorus sums up every teenager in the country in one easy sentence 'I'm so lazy, I ain't done much lately.' Purely and simply, genius. Don't get me wrong the other songs are just as fantastic, coming a close second has to be 'I Want To Hear What You Have Got To Say' followed by the melodic and frankly spine tingling 'With You.'

There are only two things that I would change about this album, 'At 1am' would have its own track and the album would be longer! Although I could still listen to it all day, at under 45 minutes, it is a tad on the short side.

It's amazing how a debut by a relatively unknown band can contain only good songs, many bands that have been around for years cannot boast such an achievement. So if you like rock and good music then this is definitely the album for you.