June Album of the Month
How on earth can a band this good be unsigned? This album immediately arrested – a great sound that was hard to silo into a genre: rock-garage-blues perhaps, but ultimately the band’s sound is entirely its own. Add to that some outstanding vocals and you have the makings of a fine album. After only three listens to Cold Tales, I had decided this was one of my top two albums so far of 2016.
This Girl has all the ingredients of a great opening single, but my stand out track with ‘single potential’ from the album – and by a country mile – is Gold. This is a perfect and uplifting, feel-good summer song: A radio song to wake up to, to commute to, to start the weekend to. It just works. It’s a song that makes you want to dance – not something I do that often.
The track Oceans opens the album convincingly and in Who Do You we see the album’s first real vocal powerhouse display from Alex, underscoring both the talent and potential the band have. Easy to get hooked, near impossible to dislike.
Overall, Beautiful People is my standout track from the album. It captures everything that is original and strong with the album at large – a livewire song that is soulful, fun and powerful in equal measure.
Every week I receive numerous promos on bands and artists from a wide range of genres. There is often some form hype from the publicists. And often the music is somewhere behind the hype. Every now and then you put something on without any expectation and stop in your tracks and mutter a surprised “hello” in your best Terry Thomas voice. This was how I discovered the world of Little Brother Eli. Cold Tales is a true musical treasure trove and it’s impossible to think they are unsigned. Still they didn’t need the PR hype – their music did the talking and rose them to the top of the week’s playlist choices. If you want to discover something new today, check out Cold Tales and the exciting world of Little Brother Eli.
