The View - Hats Off To The Buskers

Is this going to be a new January tradition then? As in the hot new “indie” band releases their debut album to much hype and applause? This time last year it was the Arctic Monkeys, in 2007 it’s The View. Yes, the same “The View” who were in my “Tips for 2007” list back in December. But, the question is, did I get it right?

Well as ever there is no clear-cut answer. They can’t help but pale in comparison to the Arctic Monkeys and, at 14 tracks, they could have done with tighter quality control, but that doesn’t detract too much from what is a good, if not great, debut album.

The singles you’ve already heard are probably the best things on it. Superstar Tradesmen and Wasted Little DJ’s are joined by the real ace in the pack, Same Jeans. Bright, breezy and catchy…you don’t need much else do you? There are other good tracks too, the pick of the bunch being Face For The Radio, which uses the laid-back melody/vitriolic lyrics trick excellently.

Whether all this is enough to send them on their way to mega-success is open to question. It’s decent, it’s good…but you could say that about a lot of bands out there. There is the feeling that this may only signify the start of the journey, rather than being their one moment of glory, but then again you could quite conceivably think the opposite. Only time will tell on that score I suppose.