“Artists that pop into mind while listening to You See Colours are Bon Jovi, Def Leopard, Starship, Crowded House, and Don Henley (and Cocteau Twins for me – ed). ”
“Artists that pop into mind while listening to You See Colours are Bon Jovi, Def Leopard, Starship, Crowded House, and Don Henley (and Cocteau Twins for me – ed). “
Delays – You See Colours, (Rough Trade)
You See Colours is the second release from this Southampton group of young lads, the Delays. And they’ve chosen to go big with this one. There are big choruses, big sounds and, in certain places on the album, there is an excess of just about everything – which I found rather distracting. There is also an unavoidable sense of sounding dated. It feels like a curse, as if these guys missed a whole period of music. Artists that pop into mind while listening to You See Colours are Bon Jovi, Def Leopard, Starship, Crowded House, and Don Henley (and Cocteau Twins for me – ed). I suppose the first few are because of singer Greg Gilbert’s voice and the last one is because many of the songs remind me of Boys Of Summer especially the opener, You & Me (that’s the Cocteausey one! – ed). Another reason for its old fashioned feel is because the lyrics seem particularly naïve. However, in a way it’s actually a breath of fresh air. They do not, (maybe defiantly?), sound like everything else contemporary right now and definitely not like any of the other acts being shipped out from the UK in the masses these days.
The second track is the first single, Valentine. It has galloping guitars and a fantastic little hook at the end of the verse and sounds like could be the theme for The Never Ending Story IV (Can you believe they made a third one? I just found that out!). This Town’s Religion has amazing guitar sounds, they have no problem with being cliquey at all, there is no irony involved, the name Delays suits them just fine.
I actually love the opening and verse parts in Too Much In Your Life. And then choruses are just… a little too much as there’re way too many background voices. They do this sort of The Who goes to Africa sounding thing for a moment before a much needed fantastic break. And then, to compound it all towards the end of the song they go entirely too far with the “la la la la’s”. Hmmm… But there’s absolutely no arguing that Greg Gilbert has an amazing voice with huge range and scope.
Give Time has a kitschy break in it with toy pianos shooting laser beams. Hideaway has that ‘boom boom bass’ Gary Glitter glam drum beat that I adore. The entries in the choruses sound forced otherwise this song is really good and one of my favorites. The lyrics are also really sweet. Lillian is fantastic. I think it’s actually the least distracting song on the album as it really feels like all the elements belong together. It has this superb electro rock marching anthem. It’s the one that sounds the most cleanly finished. Hideaway or Lillian; fighting for my favorite songs.
I listened to the album nearly 10 times, which surprises me because I keep telling myself that I don’t like it. I have to say that I made a slight mistake with first few listens as I was sitting at my computer with my only my small external speakers. I do have a bit of a rule, if an album sounds shitty on some shitty speakers, or in your boyfriends 87′ Polo with only one speaker, then, yeah, sorry, it’s usually shit. However, when I finally put the CD into my stereo and cranked it up, I witness the full potential of You See Colours. It’s huge actually and the fact is that the Delays sound incredible at high decibels and lots of college kids with big fancy stereos and 5 foot bongs will absolutely love this album. It will also sound fantastic blaring from enormous sound systems in clubs. Actually when I think about it some more, the curse (of sounding dated) is actually a blessing. If they had un-produced the album just a bit, made it rougher and not as clean they would sound a lot closer to their British rivals and everything else out there today.
There are great sounds being made on this album, unique and original. There are also big uplifting choruses and all in all it is pretty damn catchy. I caught myself humming several of the songs all day long, which makes You See Colours a damn fine pop release.
Words: Zoe E. Gottehrer (my rating: 6.5 out of 10)