Does It Offend You, Yeah?

The group’s biggest mistake was naming themselves after something The Office’s David Brent once said — essentially any words uttered from Ricky Gervais’s mouth as that character during the sitcom’s two short series were intentionally written to be irritating, conceited and pretentious. With their name crying wolf for hipsters, the band from Reading in England actually manage to pull off a good middle ground between dance rock and electro, with some of the synthesised style of European contemporaries such as Digitalism and Justice set against the rock edginess and guitar harmonics of Bloc Party or the Rapture. Each track leans a little more one way or the other throughout the album (consider Weird Science against Dawn of the Dead) and although variety is the spice of life, it feels a bit more like they haven’t fully figured out which direction to take. Nonetheless, it’s a solid debut release and if their live performances can live up to the reviews and the energy their music suggests, they will most likely draw in fans from both sides.