Coasts
Rush of Blood
December 1 2014 (Tidal Recordings / Capitol)
7/10
Words: Richard O’Hagan
Bristolian five-piece Coasts have been promoting this EP on the back of Zane Lowe’s description of the title track as ‘The Hottest Track in the World’. That’s quite a big tag to live up to and it is debatable whether the band really manage to do so.
There’s promise, certainly, but there’s also a touch of magic missing here. ‘Rush Of Blood’ itself has the makings of a really good anthem, but there are times where it merely purrs where it should roar. Second track ‘Let Go’ doesn’t really add anything to the equation either, coming over as a bit of a low-rent Metronomy rather than anything startlingly original.
Most interesting is ‘Wash Away’ which, although it gets a tad repetitive towards the end, for the most part sounds almost exactly as Prefab Sprout would if you let Dave Sitek loose on them. Closer ‘Lions In A Rush’ takes that Sitek comparison even further, evoking TV On The Radio at their most smokily arthouse, all swirling synths and slightly plaintive vocals before suddenly dropping out entirely just as you were hoping it would go on for another minute or two.
That, in itself, is a microcosm of this EP. In the end, you end up wishing that Coasts had done a little bit more with this. In one sense, that’s no bad thing, because it keeps you wondering just how far they can go. On the other hand, sending your audience away with a vague feeling of not being fully satisfied is a risky trick to play at this early stage of your career. Fortunately, there’s a debut album slated for release in 2015, providing a perfect opportunity to pull all of these loose ends together into a glorious whole.
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