Something to Shout About is the new EP by Glasgow rockers The Trend – and it’s very good indeed.
The five-track compilation, which the group will promote with a maiden headline slot at King Tut’s on 26 March, exhibits the quartet’s penchant for catchy hooks and cathartic choruses.
You may not be familiar with The Trend, but as an advertisement for what the boys are all about, Something to Shout About is a smashing one. In the span of just five songs an array of musical touchstones are covered, from ebullience and pathos to melody and straight-up-no-chaser rock and roll.
You don’t expect filler when you pick up an EP, yet it’s somehow uncannily satisfying to discover that a collection is airtight, as this one is. The proof, as they say, is in the pudding; the EP has already opened doors, with the band lining up their first gigs on the other side of Hadrian’s Wall. They’ll also fulfil support duties when Complete Stone Roses play the hallowed Barrowlands on November 26.
The EP opens with ‘Going Under Intro’. Clocking in at just under a minute, it features only Jonny Carroll’s paranoiac bass line of the song which soon arrives in all its glory. ‘Going Under’ is the EP’s lead single, for which the band have shot a video. A pulsating indie anthem if ever there was one; I particularly enjoyed the call-and-response lyrics and Del Greig’s acid trip guitar solo.
‘Something to Shout About’ is another exultant, uptempo song that nonetheless puts the boot into pleasers (“You’re all afraid to say what’s on your mind”) and overhyped bands (“Got the stage but they won’t make a stand”), while calling for a shot in the arm the song itself duly delivers.
If ‘Going Under’ and ‘Something to Shout About’ deliver musical gut punches, the final two tracks are a little deeper, both musically and lyrically. ‘Take Me Away’ is about escaping a bad situation or even a bad conversation (“You and me, brother, ain’t on the same page”) and there’s a somewhat wistful edge to the guitar notes in this one. It sounds like a song that’s been written at the tail end of a shitty experience, but one that’s left the writer ‘strong at the broken places’, to quote Hemingway. The last 40 seconds are reserved for an almost stream-of-consciousness checklist of gripes, the singer railing against “folks who don’t say what they mean”, “dead-end jobs” and “football teams that make us fight”.
‘Tonight’ is, for my money at least, the EP’s standout. The closer starts with Josh Carmichael’s rolling drums, guitar following closely behind, both instruments soon melding into a frenetic sensory wave. A minute of momentum before battle-lines are etched in the sand: “The time is now, today is my day/And nothing’s gonna get in my way…”
The energy of the song is infectious, the conviction of the message (“Tonight is just about rock and roll…”) utterly refreshing. Essentially this is a song about a band’s affinity for playing live. Has this topic been done to death? Absolutely. Why, then, does it sound so bloody life-affirming? I suspect it has a lot to do with the excellent guitar work, though partial credit must be given to the rollicking drums. Maybe ‘Tonight’ sounds so vital because the message is simple, communicated with brio and passion and an assurance that belies the band’s relatively short lifespan. Maybe it defies elucidation and it’s just a damn good song. I can’t stop playing it.
The Trend are at a liminal stage in their careers, but on this evidence, the lads are more than finding their feet. Catch them at King Tut’s and get on the bandwagon. As Ryan Malone sings on ‘Tonight’, “Believe me, man, we’re here to stay…”
Words: Ronnie McCluskey
