We All Want To - 'Back To The Car'
Tim Steward must be a busy guy. Not only has he been preoccupied
re-releasing and touring his other band Screamfeeder’s seminal 1996 album
Kitten Licks, he’s also steadily maintained a respectable solo career from which his latest band was born. Starting out the live incarnation for his recent solo project, they five piece have consolidated their strenghts into a single unit recorded an EP under the name We All Want To. There are obvious echoes of his better-known outfit in We All Want To’s sound but this is not so much because of laziness but because both bands churn out sharp indie pop-rock and because they both prominently feature Steward’s distinct and theatrical vocals.
‘Back To The Car’ is pop music at it’s least complicated. Just the usual instruments with a bit of delay on the vox and some transparent effects on the guitars and a reliabe verse/chorus structure. The song is largely reliant on the the melody and delivery to elevate it and it succeeds pretty well - but hey, I just love Steward’s voice and any song featuring those vocal chords of gold is likely to get me excited. The whole thing shimmers and the band, whose mean age is probably mid-30s (a rough guess), still sound young and excited; self-assured and brimming with kinetic energy.
If you’re a fan of Screamfeeder then you’ll probably enjoy WAWT as well. The EP as a whole doesn’t quite match the heights Steward has reached before but it’s probably following a deliberately different trajectory. As a lead track on a debut release, though, ‘Back To The Car’ is a perfect choice - it races out and hits the listener with their strongest hand and defines their sound and intention. Not only do you know what WAWT will sound like, you know it will be pretty damn good.
www.myspace.com/weallwantto
Matt Hickey