The Little Kicks - Boxing Clever

Who was it first called Biffy Clyro "Scotland's Foo Fighters"? Or coined the phrase "Scottish Strokes" for The Fratellis? Someone needs to get that guy on the trail of The Little Kicks, whose lithe brand of sharp and intelligent indie pop cements them amongst the big guns of northern sound.

It's not hard to see why either, with debut album Boxing Clever serving up a light rock treat. A backbone of punchy, quick-paced bass supports gleefully jangling guitar flourishes and half-moaned Yorke-esque lyrics, far deeper and more affecting than their otherwise up-beat malaise would lead you to imagine. The track names alone give an insight into the surprising divergence between party sound and lamenting sentiment throughout - quietly powerful arrangement Let Me Down following the meandering We Came Alive, and heart-thumping opener Don't Give Up So Easily melting into cross-rhythm strains with Know It's Over. Walking that poetic knife-edge somewhere between resignation and optimism, The Little Kicks seem to play with a nervous energy, won over by their own delight in creating such a frantic and joyful noise. Comparison with The Smiths is only too easy to make, Stephen Milne's lilting drawl echoing Morrissey-like over melodic bursts of precise instrumental chatter, mourning "the things you left behind" on One Last Time. And rarely has an organ part been so subtly and suitably employed in recent years.

It's mildly concerning, however, that all these apparent stand-out moments - these songs which highlight the core themes of the band's style - appear only in the album's first half, when some of the greatest variation and musical intrigue comes much later on. Acoustic slow-burner Smalltalk, for example, almost comes as a shock of musical sensitivity, whilst the taciturn piano and pedal-drum intro Looking Out For Number One is an enticing change of approach which very nearly succeeds in dragging The Little Kicks out of Franz Ferdinand's ever-present shadow. It is only a lack of stamina, a failure of consistency perhaps, in this portion on the record which lets down an otherwise mighty display of creative diversity. An enticing emergence out from behind the safety curtain of cymbal hooks and 5-note riffs lasts a disappointingly short time as Time to Take Over returns to formula. The Aberdeen boys are showing us flashes of their true potential here, but not straying far from their comfortable middle line - pushing just a little further, finding their own ground, building on that unique sound and indubitable inventive ability really could make a follow up album something very special indeed. Not that anything they've presented here is going to leave you unentertained, but the flirty coyness is sometimes infuriating. With every listen there is that longing for something more to emerge, something which The Little Kicks fall barely short of making good on, despite such self-evident promise. What they do, they do brilliantly, but that which they never quite manage to complete... could be astonishing.

Boxing Clever is no counter-cultural trailblazer. Nor is it a monolithic classic of the genre. But it is well written, excruciatingly danceable, and above all very, very good fun.


Boxing Clever is out now on iTunes and the other usual places.
For more information check out www.myspace.com/thelittlekicks

RH