The Rakes - Retreat EP

If you’re a regular reader here at Silent Uproar, you probably know that I’m a huge fan of British music - the more distinctly British the band the better. However, that said, with so many quality releases coming out from across the pond, I just can’t get behind London-based pop-punk band The Rakes. On their EP Retreat, The Rakes go over the old ground of touting the life of the average lad in the usual way. The track “Dark Clouds” lethargically tells the story of someone trying to “stay dry” in middle class life, while “22 Grand Job” is pretty much about what you think it’s about. Yeah, so, he’s got this job making 22K (pounds, mind you) in the city - average salary for someone with average ambition set to a jumpy beat. The best part of much-hyped single “Retreat” (and indeed the EP itself) is the chorus: Walk home, come down, retreat to sleep / Wake up, go out, again, repeat / Walk home, come down, retreat to sleep / Hook up again, this time, next week... It’s punky and has a really nice bounce, but the rest of the song doesn’t live up, so I can’t get behind it without some reservation. The last track on the EP is an ironic techno re-mix of “Retreat” that is even less interesting than the original. Who knew? Apparently adding blips and metallic twerping doesn’t help when the original is lackluster to begin with. It just ends up sounding like bad Eurotrash disco. Unfortunately, what it boils down to is that The Rakes are recycling the same story told better by bands like Hard-Fi and The Streets, but they aren’t adding anything. I’m afraid I have to give The Rakes and their EP a resounding “shrug.” [www.therakes.co.uk]