The Riot Tapes: Photograph Review

I actually wasn’t going to write about this cos I basically did a review of it when I played it on the Culture Cafe on Thursday night but a few people who know my kind of music, asked me what I thought so here goes.

There are always a few comparisons and stereotypes a band will get with a female singer backed by a few blokes. The opening ‘Stupid Girl’ Garbage/Clash-like drum beat on ‘Photograph’ doesn’t dispel these. The feedback guitar intro then dips into a more Texas-like verse.

Elaine Doyle’s vocals are strong and commanding, I can’t figure out whether its her vocals or the vocal production that reminds me of Sharleen Spiteri. It’s enough to make me listen a couple of times to try and figure out if the vocal lines are reverbed or doubletracked. </nerd> 

The build up to the chorus is my kind of of thing, all the instruments break down and there’s a great bass drop.

The Riot Tapes are a relatively new band on the Irish scene and this is their debut single. Thanks to some online work amongst the Twitterati they’ve managed to get their name around to good effect for this release, plus they’ve secured a UK label too.

This is a very good debut. There’s nothing new or groundbreaking here but it’s a bloody good radio friendly tune.  Add a few extra electronic pops and whistles to their brand of indie and this is soo right up my street.

Buy it on iTunes now

The Riot Tapes – Photograph (single) by the riot tapes