Swindon can have at times quite a niche music scene with a lot of focus on Indie, Hardcore Metal or Covers band dominating the venues. Due to this problem, it’s nice to see a band that sounds different coming out and releasing material that sounds first of all, different, but also fresh and of excellent quality. All Ears Avow have been playing around the music scene for a few years now and have released an EP called Reach which features three fantastic songs.
‘Getaway Car’ starts the EP in hard-hitting fashion with a style akin to Alternative Rock/Pop-Punk before Claire Sutton’s vocals come soaring in. The hook of the song is made obvious from the get go with a fantastic riff that starts the intro and is played throughout the choruses. It is sure to be stuck in your head for a few days. With some light progressive elements thrown in during a build-up that helps the atmosphere increase as the band comes in for final chorus, it is a well-crafted song that starts things off beautifully.
The title song ‘Reach’ is more of a melodic piece, favouring a slower tempo and more space for the vocals to be heard, whilst the rhythm section builds the dynamic to make the chorus stand out even further, making it one that will get some heads nodding and people singing and shouting along. Once again, we’re treated to some brilliant guitar work from both Claire Sutton and Jake Wilcock that just hooks you in from start to finish with the bass and drums of Joe Bishop and Sean Ivens respectively, beautifully complimenting each other.
Finally we have ‘Castles’. With a faster-paced introduction, we get an excellent drum groove from Sean Ivens with also some nice snare drum rolls to help build the anticipation of the song. The verse releases into a chorus that uses half-time to it’s full potential to accent the section. The backing vocals in the chorus helps layer the section further to give it further impact as well. Claire’s vocals throughout are superb and really show off how brilliant she is as a singer as well as the emotional range she can portray.
Overall, this is a fantastic EP with three songs that will have you listening over and over again. I recommend this EP and All Ears Avow as much as humanly possible and look forward to what they are going to be releasing in time to come.
