"You'd Feel The Same"

You’d Feel The Same
Runaround Kids
Philophobia Music


With the utmost respect to the rest of the Philophobia crowd, the label’s 2012 truly kicks off with this release by Runaround Kids, one of their most established bands and one of Wakefield’s great hopes. You’d Feel The Same is the first in a series of varied and interesting releases they have planned for the year, including an upcoming split vinyl and cassette with We Are Losers and The Spills.

The track itself reminds me of Bloc Party – not in its’ sonics but in the way Kele’s crew tended to release a standalone single after an album (Two More Years / Flux / One More Chance) as an indication as to the direction they were going to develop next. With that in mind we can expect a louder, more anthemic, more stuttering year from the Runarounds.

Stuttering is an apt word here; the opening smashes open your stereo with heavily distorted drums and a large, pleasingly messy sound. The immediacy of this comes across like an excited yelp, a tourette sufferer desperately trying to express something sincere, jilting around to find solid ground to condense a relationship into a split sentence of honesty. Like the Manics trying to squeeze a whole youthdom of boredom into the three minute timescale of Motown Junk. And that’s just the first twenty seconds.

It does all come together shortly after. Multiple, heavily condensed sections alternate, the first seeming like a chorus, then another and then another. The hooks are everywhere. The production is varied too with lots of one-off quirks and effects working alongside the structures geared to those with short attention spans. I like that. It’s great to review a track and be half way through and still be hearing new things. There’s loads going on here, it’s a massively impressive three and a half minutes. It’s like a greatest hits compilation in one track. Kind of.

It certainly sets the band up for a great year. It’s a pleasing step forward from their still ace debut album and feels even more of a representation of their live show. Properly top stuff. If you are quick, you will be able to get yourself the ace bundle of everything they release over the year through their bandcamp. Otherwise, get a copy with a limited edition T-Shirt and you are laughing.

Dean Freeman