Darwin & The Dinosaur - A Thousand Ships
Decent debut from a local band that deserves our support.
Norwich’s own Darwin & The Dinosaur have been around since 2008. Following tours of the continent and line-up changes, A Thousand Ships is the debut from the four-piece. The publicity material describes D&TD as post-punk but I don’t see that. This is hardly PiL, Wire or The Banshees. For me, this is a more-or-less straight if contemporary take on alt.rock.
The album kicks off with Theories, an anthemic rocker recalling early Manics, with a touch of Therapy’s Screamager. Making Friends With Strangers and Riff Town Population – You are heavier, hinting at both Metallica and The Rasmus. Make Believe and Hand In Hand bring to mind The Manics (again), with a touch of The Twilight Side, whilst Change of Heart mixes Yuck with a smidge of Placebo. The remaining four tracks are short acoustic instrumental sketches. Vaguely reminiscent of Michael Chapman, these are pretty enough but need to be worked up into full songs. As it is, there is a hint of gimmick and padding. Overall, a decent if not great album. Ditching those instrumentals and adding a couple of songs from the Remus EP could’ve made the difference. Whatever, D&TD is a good local band and deserves your support. Check this out.
8/10
