When you can’t get a band’s songs out of your head, you know they must be on to something, and that’s definitely the case with these four girls from Oxford. They may be pitching straight down the middle on this collection of earworms, but they hit the target time after time.

The opening line of “Get over my chest and examine my brain” immediately tells the listener that Evarose is a band to be taken seriously, and by the time of the first killer chorus on driving rocker ‘Routes’ I’m hooked. Okay, their brand of no-nonsense, hard-edged, grungy pop rock doesn’t hold many surprises – but with this many hooks and such quality vocals, quite frankly, who cares?

The opening four tracks are so strong it’s unreal. Besides the opener, you get the measured hard rock riffs of ‘Glitch’, which is an absolute killer, a canny slice of hook-filled, radio-friendly rock on ‘Quicksand’, as well as the more sophisticated ‘Provoke Me’. The atmospheric interlude of Breathing Space is perfect after such an intense start.

Although the second half has the occasional wobble, notably the lukewarm ‘I’m Sorry’, there are still plenty of massive tunes, like ‘Telephonic’ and the well thought-out ‘The Cause and the Cure’. You also get the feeling they are experimenting a little as on the darker ‘The Fall’ and album closer ‘Someone Else to Blame’, which sees them play around with effects and instrumentation, besides tacking a little sing along finale on the end that you can imagine going down a storm live.

All told, ‘Invisible Monsters’ makes for a highly enjoyable listen, and on the strength of these bangers you can expect to be hearing a lot more from these girls.

4/5

‘Invisible Monsters’ by Evarose is out now.

Evarose links:Website|Facebook|Twitter

Words by Edward Layland (@EdwardLayland)