Stop Press ::: English Life

Music is something I look to when I want to escape the challenges of everyday life. And these days in our bleak economic climate the last thing I want to be reminded of is signing on the dole and being refused redundancy when I stick some music on. I hear enough of that in the news. Opening track on The English Life EP A Man Called Rich chronicles some poor old bugger who’s lost his job and has a wife and two kids to provide for.

Musically, second track, Masterpiece sounds like a continuation of the first track. One thing to note is vocalist Emma Hodgson’s striking similarity to Lily Allen (just a tad less English).

"Spend, spend, spend is what the TV says and what the TV says imbeds in our heads” sings Hodgson on title track English Life. The track is a satirical look at consumer culture and although it is still focusing on money and everyday reality it is remarkably less depressing, musically and otherwise, than the first two tracks.

If I had to choose a stand out track from the EP the accolade would go to the last track which is a remix of Old Fashioned which is also on the EP in its original form. While the original version didn’t jump out at me at all I really enjoyed the IMTIGER remix; a brilliant mix of just enough dubstep and just enough electro to make it thoroughly enjoyable.

I wasn’t very keen on this EP however after listening to the remix of Old Fashioned perhaps it’s time for Stop Press! to venture into the dubstep market.

Review by Maria Molloy