Album Review: Tall Trees - Scream Danger EP

When you think of Jimmy Eat World, either you're sitting down in a schoolyard looking forward to opening that Toy Story lunchbox you hold so dear with a copy of "awesome" 'Invented' loaded into your "Cool Summer Vibe" iPod playlist, or you've got a wall decorated with 'Clarity'/'Static Prevails' vinyl and a liberal arts degree. This situation leaves little space for an alternative market for new pop-rock bands to dig their teeth in, yet the wave of popedom still rolls strong, meaning every once in a while us reviewers get treated to some half-decent new sounds.

With their latest EP 'Scream Danger', Tall Trees sound like a band who wants to get liberal art degree hipsters and schoolkids to hang out at gigs. All in all, the band follow the genre conventions set out by Jimmy Eat World a decade ago, while showcasing a few of their own ideas. In fact, in their best moments the band come up with tracks like 'Terrible Things' and 'Never Listen', when their pop-sensibilities match the attempted edginess of their rock credibility. The hooks are tight and the vocals' slight acerbic edge work well with the heavier sections.

On the other hand, 'Below the Water', 'Fight the Fire' and 'Scream Danger' are all acceptable tracks, but on efforts like these, the band never manage to fully fill the space they're given with the quality of the production. The songs always linger on the outskirts of catchiness while never delivering spot-on "rawk-out" material. But 'Come Alive', the EP's closer, serves as a good end to the meal, as the band show some real verve by adding small personal touches that easily lift the track above most of the rest, showing much potential for exploiting epic sections in the future.

Britain's pop-rock scene has slowly started to emerge as a more consistent portion of the cheese in the last couple years and Tall Trees should certainly consider themselves worthy knights amongst them, but there are still improvements to be made in the song-writing department and a little creative flourish needs to emerge in terms of finding a more distinctive sound fo themselves.

3/5

'Scream Danger' by Tall Trees is released on July 13th.

Tall Trees on their Facebook and Twitter.

James Berclaz-Lewis