If you love Franz Ferdinand but can’t believe that Alex Kapranos has a singing career, Holy White Hounds is the band for you. Sparkle Sparkle is everything you could want to listen to it’s truly a great indie rock record without the poor vocal performance. Brenton Dean’s voice is soft like butter throughout this whole listening experience, even if he shouts.
The album starts off with the big it “Switchblade”, a track that carries an absolutely addictive bass line that pulls everything together. With lyrics like, “Sitting in the backseat / sucking on a switchblade”, how could one not fall in love with the imagery? The chorus explodes and kicks you in the face with amazing reverb and chaos.
Skip through a couple of tracks and we have “Ghost Arm”, a laid back song that I could see being the perfect addition to any summer movie soundtrack. The guitar solo in this track is devilish and remarkable, and I wish it were longer. The lyrics are difficult to decipher – I have no idea what this song could possibly be about, but I think I love it for that reason.
“Laser Beams” includes some female vocals that are desperate and cold, jarring with the warmth of the guitar licks, making for a bizarrely interesting sound. It clocks in at just 1:47, but it would have been nice to hear a longer version of this song. It could be mistaken for a pop punk song from afar.
The last track on this record is “Black Lust” and it starts to sound like Holy White Hounds is just jamming out in their studio before it flows effortlessly into one of the best songs on this album. The chorus is so gentle and then in-your-face all of a sudden, while keeping true to the main guitar-driven sound in this song that makes it so special.
Sparkle Sparkle is the perfect addition to any indie rock fan’s album collection – it doesn’t hide its influences, but it’s also unafraid of making a statement all by itself, standing tall among today’s giants.
