Only Strangers and The Debut Self-Titled.

Only Strangers – Stoke-On-Trent, England, United Kingdom.

Melodic Punk, a genre classification that many hate passionately for far less than the more than reasonable reason of personal preference, despite Punk’s early and dare-I-say pop-fulled and melodic charge.

In truth, some the most emotively charged, genuine and indeed popular Punk-Rock bands and records have come from under this moniker thus leaving it far more favourable a term then many at face value consider it to be. Enter, Stoke-On-Trent four-piece, Only Strangers.

Think The Lawrence Arms, Hot Water Music, The Draft, Iron Chic, The Menzingers and relatively local and/or up and coming bands such as Our Lives In Cinema, The Burnt Tapes and Stay Clean Jolene and you have your sonic reference point. The band’s debut album begins with the gruff sing-a-long ‘Last Time’ which has you 90’s Punk line and sinker.

‘So Long, Eturia’ forgoes the gruff-vocal approach for a lighter melodic style that paired with the playful lead-guitar and bouncing rhythm section, makes for a welcome Only Strangers rendition of classic Pop-Punk. ‘What Happened To You?’ continues the up-beat mid-tempo Hot Water Music rumble in a track that sounds like a perfect cross of the legend’s early and contemporary sound. ‘What Happened to You?’ tackles the pains of life and what it does to those around us as the world passes by and is another example of a band just being honest.

‘Never Wanted This’ injects the pace you pined for into a layered rumbling intro standing the strained vocals out perfectly. ‘Counter Attack’ sees Only Strangers try their hand and a slower more Alternative Rock-led sound complete with the cleaner emotive vocals once more which really come into themselves in a chorus so telling of the band’s roots and influences.

‘As we get older, burden on our shoulders […]’ are words oh-so-true that greet you in the aptly up-tempo ‘Saturday Night’ and they don’t really leave you hence forth. The track is by far one of the best of a best bunch so much so that as you’re at this mid-point, if the release  indeed ended now, you’d still be more than satisfied.

In fact it is indeed very hard to focus on just one track. Only Strangers are very much playing music in a barebones manner, emotion is felt, emotion is then written down, music is added, timing is then selected for maximum effect and then the listener is immersed give or take a few intermediary stages.

‘Fare Thee Well’ is as close to “classic Punk” as the band get with a stripped-down seventh track of ironically up-beat Punk-realism. ‘It’s a sad state of affairs, when no one really cares, just scream on til’ your sick […] Fare thee well, all hope is lost and everyones a winner if you never count the cost’.

‘Anyway, We Delivered The Bomb’ takes the building blocks from ‘Fare Thee Well’ with more of the “written for the people who can see something’s wrong” approach and sheer quotability that Only Strangers effortlessly produce. ‘Creature’ carries perhaps one of the best intros of the album in perfect setting for the charged up-tempo output I only wish the band would utilise further, before yet another fist-in-the-air hand on heart relatable chorus.

Clocking in at nearly five-minutes, ‘Hardest Thing’ closes a record that spins around and around my ear cavity on it’s own accord and has been now for quite some time.

Only Strangers are the sound of UK Punk and are currently signed to Horn & Hoof Records.

Find Them:

• Social Media/Updates: Facebook, Official Website.
• Music: bandcamp, Spotify, Amazon, Google Play, iTunes/Apple Music.
• Horn & Hoof Records: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SoundCloud, bandcamp, Official Website.

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