Delays - Faded Seaside Glamour

As a band, The Delays are about as English as fish and chips. Heavily accented falsettos harmonized over epic guitars with a driving drum line. So if you have a hard time appreciating warm beer and “football,” there’s a good chance you’ll have a hard time getting into The Delays. Even though they are very English, The Delays are also very different from most contemporary English rock acts, having more in common with The Byrds than Oasis (although they are a brother fronted band, in fact with two sets of brothers). Their jangly guitar-driven pop stands in contrast to the current retro rock revival, sounding both reverent of the past but committed to exploring the future. Songs such as opener “Wonderlust,” “Long Time Coming,” and “On” are full-on stadium anthems waiting to be shouted along with by thousands of drunken summer festival goers. But it’s not all simple stadium rock. The track “Stay Where You Are” has an almost electronica beat, showing the bands versatility but not at the cost of their accessibility. However, there are moments when I feel like I lose the plot a little. Tracks like “No Ending” and “There’s Water Here” just leave me scratching my head. I want to get into it, but I still spell color without a u. Maybe there is something lost in translation that I’m just not picking up on. It sounds almost like “ethnic” English music (though it seems weird using the word “ethnic” to describe the English). Overall it’s a great English spring/summer album; it’s just too bad that I got it right smack dab in the middle of a Midwestern American winter. [www.thedelays.co.uk]