Review: BRIBES – She Sings Blues EP

BRIBES have been working hard on their debut EP, making sure they get it right. Now, the local lads have finally unveiled She Sings Blues EP.

Unable to wait any longer, BRIBES have dropped their EP  two weeks early, giving us a chance to hear their first effort for free ahead of it’s May 26th release date.

BRIBES five track EP opens in aggressive fashion with ‘Jump The Gun‘. Starting with an angry riff, you immediately get a sense of how this song is gonna go. You feel the aggression rising throughout as it speeds through with a cool beat backing it.

‘Jump The Gun‘ has conflicting emotions, as the frontman sings “looking at you, makes me feel blue…” and “I’m not blind, she’s on my mind…“, creating an angst from start to end. It eventually reaches tipping point and an instrumental erupts with whirring guitars and a hard-hitting beat before returning to it’s chorus one last time. It’s an exciting track to open the local lads debut EP.

Throughout, the aggressive style of play is unavoidable and it’s an entertaining twenty minutes of rock. From dizzying riffs and slick style of drumming, it’s an EP that grips you from the start and rarely lets go. BRIBES’ loudness is exciting and the kind of rock that’s hard to find these days, with so many artists wavering and drifting away from their style, BRIBES know what they’re good at and stick to it.

The latest single, ‘Wild Creature‘ is the midpoint on the She Sings Blues EP and is one of the biggest stand out moments. It’s an intense song but it’s the composition of it that makes this such a good song. Most notably is when it approaches the final quarter and dies down into a repetition of “never gonna get to you, I know…” and subtly returns to the explosive style that’s so adamant throughout the track.

Listening to any artist, it’s usually easy to draw comparisons to other acts but in BRIBES case it’s difficult. The only occasion this becomes a possibility is on ‘Hangin’ On‘ when the song has a vague similarity to The Stone Roses before the chorus bursts to the surface to wipe that away from the mind.

The EP closes with ‘On Your Mind‘, which is filled with a piercing beat and entertaining hooks, it’s a solid closing track, which carries on the intensity that’s been rife on the EP. With a cool instrumental as the track nears it’s end, it’s blues style of alt rock makes sure that they carry on to be different to your average rock band.

Overall, the She Sings Blues EP is a thrilling journey of hard-hitting guitars and catchy beats, making it an impressive debut from BRIBES. With these collection of songs sounding good with headphones in, there’s no doubt they’ll sound a hell of a lot better live.

Verdict: 8/10

Songs worth putting on repeat: ‘Hangin’ On’ and ‘On Your Mind’

BRIBES debut, She Sings Blues EP is available to download and stream from May 26th.

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