Play 90 second soundbite of 'Broken Lights' @ 'CD quality'
Their press pack indicates that The Cartels are hard working and enthusiastic outfit with some impressive gigs and appearances already behind them. Certainly, 'Bring Me The Head Of General Fentoni...' demonstrates their songwriting capabilities and performing prowess; what it lacks in polish it more than makes up for in effort and dedication.
I particularly like the opener, 'Broken Lights' with its punchy percussive work and catchy guitar licks; it has an anthem like quality and works extremely well. Other track here are, 'The Common Cold', 'Sour Milk' and ' Underneath It All'; each shows potential and each has plus and minus points. The pluses being the 'home grown' songs - the minuses tend to be that The Cartels have not yet really managed to find a distinctive, trade-mark sound or feel - they are, and I quote from their press pack, "...simply an indie four piece...". They wrote that with modesty and honesty. Now The Cartels should work hard to find an edge to enable them to drop the "...simply..." and replace it with something more dynamic!
Hey, these guys are young and there's plenty of bands out there, with more experience, that aren't this good. The Cartels should now build on these 'simple' foundations with a view to constructing something more solid and innovative. All the basic tools are in place and ready to use - they just need to realise that there's usually more than one way to use those tools - by being daring and truly original. The Cartels' relatively brief history indicates an outfit not shy of hard work and not scared to take risks - something tells me there's more to come yet!
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