Review: Radars - Rock is Not Your Enemy

Dec 15 2009 by Andrew Welsh

WITH Alice In Chains back in tow and Foos / Zeppelin / QOTSA ‘supergroup’ Them Crooked Vultures earning rave reviews, it seems that all things grunge are finally back in vogue.

So it is with a masterstroke in timing that Perth’s own Radars have unleashed their own homage to the Seattle-born form.

The duo, Michael Rattray and Gavin Kelly, last surfaced on 2007’s Planet Silence, a gentle acoustic affair marked by twisted lyrics that was, musically at least, more James Taylor than Taylor Hawkins.

From the outset, it’s clear that Rock... represents a wholesale reaction against its subtly disturbing predecessor.

The set kicks-off with the riff-fuelled title track and its only partly flippant opening lines: “The songs on the radio don’t say anything to me. I’m suicidal but I write a great melody.”

Those words could’ve been uttered by the late Kurt Cobain and the revered Nirvana star would’ve been proud of the distorted guitars that blaze across the anthemic opening salvo.

A whispered, mantra-like chorus and a delicious false ending are the cherries on the top.

Underscoring the theme, the tongue-in-cheek Going Out Of Fashion comes over like a paean to grunge’s slacker code and Rattray’s own musical references, before affairs take a twist.

Scary stalker tale Be My Baby is more akin to the huge, hook-laden fare peddled by the likes of Garbage than Cobain et al, though the balance is redressed on early Nirvana homage Free Ride.

Like Teenage Fanclub with its ‘jangly’ feel, Allison Number One harks back to Radars’ gentler earlier efforts.

Slightly off-kilter guitars on Honey put the track in territory previously occupied by The Jesus & Mary Chain or ex-Suede axeman Bernard Butler, while Motormouth is a stomping glam excursion that’s the LP’s most out-and-out pop moment.

As the set reaches its climax, the duo give us Night And Day, another of Rattray’s twisted love songs, taking in tattoos and cross-dressing as its subject matter.

Interestingly, it’s more reminiscent of Nineties almost-forgotten Britpoppers Gene than anything by Gav Kelly’s hero Bob Mould.

They wrap up with head-shaker Soul’s Still Shining, one of the band’s most impressive outings lyrically and musically and featuring, aptly enough, a glorious flurry of fuzzy electric guitars.

Putting their slightly naff name to one side, Radars offer an intelligent antidote to so much of the dross that passes as ‘left-field’.

Clearly, they’re being given the time and space to work out their own endearing retro aesthetic at their indie label Genepool, and long may that continue.

Rock is not the enemy, and neither are Radars. Embrace them as your friends.