Four Day Hombre

Were the lead singers of Elbow and Coldplay oh so original when they first entered the scene or did a certain style of emotive British singing just spring forth when Thom Yorke first screamed in "Creep”? It seems the British vocal emulators keep on coming and, indeed, the horribly named Four Day Hombre have a lead singer that sounds like Elbow’s Guy Garvey come magically out of his melancholic funk. That’s actually a good thing for this record, a North American re-release, as the band are quite good at lifting the music out of the usual clichéd traps of Coldplay and into something more emotionally immediate. Take the ending of "Single Room,” where the guitars crunch and the drums pound into a thrilling climax, with Simon Wainwright’s vocals being particularly strong. Despite the odd bright spot, the album suffers from British music disease. I can go to Elbow, Starsailor, Keane, Embrace, etc. for my manipulative introspection and while Four Day Hombre put up a valiant fight to distinguish themselves, they do fall short and get lost in the shuffle.