DMA's - Hills End

At first listen, the debut album from Aussie rockers DMA’s bemuses and mystifies. How is it that a trio of sun-cooked, bucked hat-adorned lads from down under have triumphed in creating a record so irresistibly Britpop? And one far more appealing than their British contemporaries at that; looking at you, Catfish and the Bottlemen. Timeless leads the retro assault with spacey melodies and raspy vocals, followed by Lay Down and the acoustic zest/Gallagher swag of Delete. Step Up the Morphine hits the spot at the midway mark with a dreamy lull of lo-fi nostalgia. But morphine is probably what you’ll need to sit through the comedown of Hills End. So We Know signals the end of DMA’s innovation and drafts in banality instead, as it becomes apparent that they are just a one trick pony, belters melting into boredom quicker than an ice cream in the outback sun. Straight Dimensions sounds like alternative Aussie whizz-kid Courtney Barnett without the deadpan lyrical flare, and as for Blown Away, I’m definitely not. The Switch is one saving grace, with an airy Suck It and See-era Arctic Monkeys sound, but it does little to brighten up the end of an album that goes from promising to promise broken in a matter of minutes.