Torche - Songs For Singles EP
- Written by Pete Harris
Releasing an EP must be a liberating experience. It gives a chance for any band to smash the shackles of expectation associated with the album making process, unburdening the artist from any stylistic choices imposed by themselves or the studio. In the case of Songs for Singles, Torche have cut their own reigns as the eight slabs of pop metal on offer here practically fly out the stalls, sounding suspiciously like they’re pumped up on performance enhancing drugs.
It’s not as if Torche have ever messed around in getting their grove going (there was certainly no meandering on the un-aptly titled Meanderthal album) but previously, the band’s sub three minute songs have kept to a fairly simple riff based verse chorus verse format. Here though, on the opening six tracks, none of which get near the 2:30 mark, the riffs ebb and flow relentlessly and nothing feels obvious or predictable.
Opener “U.F.O.” for example, offers three or four riffs based on a theme, all are great and each could carry a four minute track on their own. Perhaps none of the riffs and beats here are anything out of the ordinary but it’s the deftness of how they’re handled and shifted around which gives the whole EP a palpable sense of adrenaline and excitement.
Songs for Singles isn’t quite all pedal to the metal though. At track seven of eight, Torche sensibly realise that a change is as good as a rest and they begin to wind it down some. “Face the Wall” sounds like Infernal Love era Therapy? with a great airy, epic and atmospheric sound. This slower, more deliberate pace is heard again on closer “Out Again” which sounds very much like where the Foo Fighters promised to head before they steered into the middle of the road.
Torche are one of the few heavy bands around who actually feel more vital the closer they approach radio friendliness. They still know how to pound and sludge with the best of their contemporaries but theirs has always been a softer, rounder sound which was always likely to metamorphose this way. Let’s hope the shackles stay off for album number three.