'Playtime' by The Vanguard

Right from the start, The Vanguard's album 'Playtime!' takes a somber tone, using the piano to establish a light but dramatic mood by hammering out a selection of minor chords. But that is just the intro to the first tune, 'And Then We'll Dance'. The body of the song soon kicks in, in pure Physical Graffiti-era Led Zeppelin fashion, with an attack of monstrous chords and synchronized, and heavy drum hits.

The Vanguard have really hit their target here. The music really rocks, the musicianship is solid, the vocals are spot on and the song forms are very well composed. But the one thing that I was so impressed by, was that these guys are not afraid to write a damn good hook and throw that into the mix as well. 'And Then We'll Dance' is the perfect example of this;  a rock n' roll tune that hits at full force, but has heart, and is willing to be the kind of song that an entire audience will poor themselves into.

The interesting thing about The Vanguard is that they rock, but I wouldn't actually classify them as a rock band. There is a lot of synth work through these songs that gives the band an almost classic, throwback 80's feel to it- modern new wave in a sense. 'Both Side', the second track on the album has that anthemic, U2 quality to it. Epic in sense of overall presence of vocals and music, yet the warmth and accessibility of today's modern indie-pop songs.

Musically these guys are all very tight. While the music is quite layered, it lacks that too-echoy quality that all too many indie bands have now-a-days that, for me at least, ruins the integrity of the music. From my point of view, if you are writing music, music with specific notes, melodies, and harmonies, why bog it down with being just an echo'd mush of noise. But thankfully The Vanguard are well aware of the music they are trying to make, and are not afraid to show it- there is no hiding here. While the guitar plays a fairly safe role within the music, the bass and drums really work together to create a powerful combination- a wall of sound that adds to the presence of the vocals. Speaking of which, the vocals on this album are fantastic. It is rare to find a vocalist with such confidence. The vocals are big, but more importantly they are direct. There is no shaking around the melody on this album. Vocalist Arron Lloyd Barr has done a wonderful job to present memorable melodies that are simple enough to be catchy, but varied enough to keep the music consistently interesting- a difficult feat to accomplish, but one that gives the song-forms an organic push if done successfully.

From the first listen, The Vanguard contains all of the qualities of that of a Eurpoean new-wave group- anthemic song writing, epic tone, powerful vocals. But to my utter surprise, they are a young group from New York City. While I was thrown off by this at first, I think it just proves my point further, that this is a band who is well aware of what they want and what they are trying to accomplish. So much so in fact, that I thought I had pegged this band as 'this or that', but there they went again and threw a curveball my way. In a popular New York scene of indie music, The Vanguard have still managed to maintain a unique sound and direction that could just give them the edge needed to break through to the sizable venues suitable for such anthemic, powerful music.

FOR MORE INFO ON THE VANGUARD CHECK OUT THERE PROFILE RIGHT HERE ON MICCONTROL