All Roads Lead To This

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合計収録時間 : 00:00:00
A listener could be initially apprehensive upon first exposure to G-Plan's debut album All Roads Lead to This. Uh-oh, instrumental crescendo-oriented sturm-und-drang post-rock from Scotland? Can you say Mogwai? And from the opening guitar notes you could easily become prejudiced that this will indeed be a carbon copy of the legendary Glaswegians' proprietary take on the genre. But given time, as the tracks unfold, the listener will discover a unique identity that is certainly influenced by the mighty Mogwai, but also by other slow-build post-rockers like Godspeed You Black Emperor! as well as the reckless abandon inherent in the primal punk rawk of Nirvana and snarky post-punk of the Pixies. And whereas Mogwai are continually trying to reinvent the wheel and distance themselves from the formulaic quiet-loud-quiet approach, these lager-soaked lads revel in the bombast. Some songs are piss-headed staggers down the rainy cobblestones of the high street, while others are out-and-out football riots where the hooligans have the upper hand and the pub's gonna burn to the ground. A standout track is "There's People Lying Dead in the Stairwell," a brawler that just missed being the perfect addition to the Trainspotting soundtrack. "Send a Plane for Murray Ward" is a melodic tension-release slow-burner straight from the Young Team songbook. "Feeling for Snow," the album's only non-instrumental track, is a hungover lament on a par with Mogwai's "R U Still in 2 It," even down to the barely-in-the-mix "what did I do last night" vocalizing. "Goodbye You Fucking Thief" is a bass-driven romp not far from the pub crawls of the Rum Diary. And "Mig! Polka" gets its point across with all the subtlety of a pint glass to the skull. An enjoyable and auspicious debut, and although it remains to be seen if the band will decide to continue (reports as of press time are unclear), if they ever do release another album here's to hoping they don't change a thing. ~ Brian Way