Album Review: The Speedways - "Radio Sounds"

 

The Speedways' debut album Just Another Regular Summer was one of the standout debut releases of 2018 and the band's blurb at the time stated the group would be a one album one gig and done affair. Of course, when your songs pick up the praise they subsequently did, it's maybe not a surprise that they decided to re-evaluate and so here in 2020 we find ourselves with a second album from the London power-pop group.

All in all, Radio Sounds is pretty much a straight continuation of the band's debut and the influences here are as you'd expect - the Buzzcocks (The Day I Call You Mine), the Ramones (In A World Without Love, It's Hard To Stay Young) and the Undertones (Number Seven) all get a tip of the hat here. But the group have enough of a knack with a catchy chorus and killer hook that it's easy to overlook the similarities and enjoy the songs for what they are. There's the odd curveball in here too to keep things interesting from the Spectoresque torch song leanings of lead-off single Kisses Are History to the '50s R&B stylings of Your Brown Eyes Look So Blue to the spiky Telephone Lies which sounds like early Elvis Costello, not an unwelcome development at all.

Radio Sounds certainly isn't anything you won't have been expecting from the Speedways but when it's done this well, it really seems churlish to complain about that. And in this era where we're facing what looks like a long and hard winter, you have to grab all the sunlight that you can. Give it a listen and cheer yourself up - it's available to download or stream from the Speedways Bandcamp page.

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑 (8/10)

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