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A great rock star once
said that you don’t have to be part of a scene to be more
relevant. He could have been talking about Libawalks. He could have
been talking to Libawalks. He wasn’t, as it happened, but it sure
does bare thinking about when you listen to ‘and tomorrow’ and,
say, ‘The Bravery’ side by side. Scenes don’t always make for
better music. Just ask Shed Seven.
If you thought 2006
was to be a year of pseudo-‘80s synth acts, there has never been a
time when listening to the Libawalks has been more essential. They
don’t have the drug-addled stories of The Libertines. They don’t
have the Vegas-cool of The Killers. They don’t have the Hollywood
wives of Coldplay and they certainly don’t have the bad teeth of
Razorlight.
There is just one
thing that is a given with Libawalks and that’s blistering,
no-holds-barred, good honest rock songs. What else, in life, do you
need?
"Life is what
happens when you sleep" – ‘Life’
So what you’ll get
from debut album ‘and tomorrow’ is a manifesto of a rock band
comprising the musical car-crash of a wannabe Moon, Slash, Lynott
and Lennon. Tension within the group is like an over-stretched
elastic band ready to snap at any time. But hell, it makes for good
tunes, from the punch-packing opener ‘City That Never Sleeps’
and ‘Fast Lane’ to the bitter ‘Curse You Lucky People’ and
nod-inducing, summer-perfect ‘Times Like These’.
"I wanna go
where we can shine" – ‘Times Like These’ Born out of the
same kind of local-scene background as any band worth their salt,
the Libawalks have plied their trade for 5 years now, picking up
real-life material usually found in Take A Break or on Kilroy before
intravenously injecting it into their songs. Each life-affirming
track encapsulates the band’s reflection on aspects of urban
culture – the good, the bad and the surreal – accompanied by
infectious hooks that are impossible to get out of your head.
So with 2006 shaping
up to be an interesting year for the Doncaster-raised four-piece,
make sure you can say in six months that you were there, fighting
Libawalks cause, first.
"by the way what
does your name mean, It keeps me up at night woundering" -
Michael Stipe REM
And the name?
Inspired by Shakespeare, the band arrived at the name Libawalks and
the album title ‘and tomorrow’ whilst reading a passage from the
Bard’s Scottish play.
Ten points for naming
a Shakespeare-inspired music scene…
24TH MARCH 2006
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