The Pretty Girls In Prague / You Smoke Too Many Cigarettes / Black Sambuca / A Plan For Saturday / What D'You Wanna Fight For? / Open Wounds / Celluloid / Medusa / Turn A Blind Eye / Salvage Some Hope

Bashing out no frills indie rock n roll that sounds like a drunken punch up between Oasis and the Arctic Monkeys, The Novasouls are a five piece whose primary interest seems to be singalong choruses and loud guitars.

Debut album PIPE DREAMS & BRAVADO is a collection of songs that go straight for the jugular, straight to the point indie rock tunes that aren't remotely interested in innovation or fresh thinking.  Songs like THE PRETTY GIRLS IN PRAGUE and YOU SMOKE TOO MANY CIGARETTES are chock full of crashing powerchords and attitude laden vocal tirades; basic but effective sounding stuff.  BLACK SAMBUCA is a shambolic ally noisy affair that imagines Babyshambles going at it with the Stereophonics, refreshingly rough and ready sounding, The Novasouls obviously more interested in raw rock n roll attitude than fancy production techniques and smooth radio friendly considerations.

WHAT D'YOU WANNA FIGHT FOR injects a little more melodic variation into proceedings, pretty guitar riffs punctuating the crashing powerchords and frenetic drum smashes.  The lad rock posturing of A PLAN FOR SATURDAY NIGHT is less convincing, all the macho getting wasted on a saturday night clichés failing to hit the mark.

OPEN WOUNDS is a more epic sounding affair, The Novasouls attempting some kind of Editors like stadium rock manoeuvres with anthemic guitar cascades and windswept vocal croons.

Elsewhere here, the record settles into more forgettable territory, songs like the meandering TURN A BLIND EYE or the Jam aping MEDUSA passing by with little incident.  Closing number SALVAGE SOME HOPE is a more ambitious sounding affair, The Novasouls developing their sound into something far more epic and far reaching, massive guitar hooks weaving in and out of loose limbed drum beats and melodic vocal croons.

PIPE DREAMS & BRAVADO is a record of no frills indie rock n roll, The Novasouls pumping out attitude laden tunes full of crashing powerchords and driving vocal melodies.  Perhaps lacking the material and ideas to go the whole distance at the moment though, The Novasouls still make enough of an encourage indie rock noise here to suggest a band capable of more promising things in the future.

BIOGRAPHY

Los NovaSoulos came together after a night of sambuca and walkers crisps in a small house in the suburbs of ipswich.  We unearthed a plethora of songs about drinking, smoking, fighting and regretting it all in the morning.  We're mates, damn good mates.  We stick by our principles and if people don't like it we don't particularly care.  We'd obviously prefer it if you thought we were the dogs bollocks but we ain't gonna pander to people.  It's indie rock'n'roll done properly.  It's not art school and it's not prog.  They're songs that'd sound best when cranked up on jukebox at closing time on a saturday night.  If you like it then you're more than welcome to join the party.  Bring a bottle. or two.

LINE UP

Danny

Chris

Scotty

J

El Vego

DISCOGRAPHY

PIPE DREAMS & BRAVADO (2007)

The Pretty Girls In Prague

You Smoke Too Many Cigarettes

Black Sambuca

A Plan For Saturday

What D'You Wanna Fight For?

Open Wounds

Celluloid

Medusa

Turn A Blind Eye

Salvage Some Hope

LINKS

The Novasouls>thenovasouls.com

FURTHER LISTENING

Oasis

Arctic Monkeys

Stereophonics