Filling the genre section on their Facebook page with the terms ‘Fuck Rock’, ‘Gash Pop’ and ‘Sasscore’, North Wales quartet Falls do a better job of summing up the sound of third EP ‘Cream’ than most premeditated genre labels possibly could. No one’s sticking to conventions on these four tracks, but layers of attitude are stuck all over them.
Opener ‘Berries!’ wastes no time shoving this attitude in people’s faces. Delivered on a set off riffs packing an almighty swagger. “Me and you, think it through, you can poke my bruise”, frontman Martin Gallagher lulls over the melody, which isn’t the best pickup line in the book, but is delivered with a devil-may-care approach that makes the offer feel irresistible.
Moments like this and the velvet smooth chorus of ‘Daytime N U’ makes ‘Cream’ an outlet for red-blooded bravado delivered with a flamboyance from Gallagher, whose versatile vocal range lets him switch from crooner to a man bursting out his veins on ‘Live Delicious’. His performance makes him the most dynamic presence on the EP, commanding the band to change tempo and levels of distortion to match his own schizophrenic flow.
On a surface level, ‘Cream’ is a jovial effort from Falls,which lets them play around with catchy grunge riffs and hooks with a Josh Homme touch to them. Yet there’s an undeniable bite across these songs, and by the time you reach the sludgy ending of ‘Liberator’, you’ll surely be converted into a Sasscore fan.
3.5/5
’Cream EP’ by Falls is released on December 2nd on Naughty Strawberry.
Falls links: Website|Facebook|Twitter
Words by Andy Davidson (@AndyrfDavidson)
