Midday Committee: Girls In Open C

Artist: Midday Committee
Title: Girls In Open C
Format Reviewed: MP3
Format Released: 7th April 2014
Reviewed By: Dan Stoten

Some of the best pop-punk of the last few years has definitely been that with a harder edge. Neck Deep, Gnarwolves, and of course The Story So Far have been leading the way in churning out rougher, more gravelly pop-punk with a kick.

The problem you have when there is such brilliance around is competing with it. There are plenty of Neck Deep-lite and Story So Far-lite bands who have mimicked to such an extent that it can be difficult to give them the time of day.

You might think that from the fairly pessimistic opening to this review that Portsmouth's Midday Committee were another one of those bands to fall foul of this mimicry. I am happy to say, however, that this is not the case. Girls In Open C is a stonker of a record.

There is no doubt that Hometowns is absolutely the stand out track here. It's quite simply a brilliant, brilliant song. Brilliantly basic but hard hitting relationship-based lyrics provide a cutting vehicle for the song's meaning, with an edgy combination of double-bass drum beatdowns, melodic periods and stunningly catchy choruses with the necessary gang vocals all combine to form what is one of the best pop-punk tracks of 2014 so far. The combined vocal of Rich and Keiran is menacing yet melodic, with that metallic edge which grabs the listener by the lapels and shakes them hard. It delivers a perfect slice of pop-punk emotion, frustration and euphoria in three and a half fast-paced minutes.

Although the rest of the EP can't quite reach the heady heights of Hometowns, this is not to the detriment of the band or the record, as it's a song quite beyond compare. The rest of the EP is easily a four-and-a-half-star piece of music.

Just Me And You is a genuinely beautiful acoustic track, with the emotion coursing through it almost breaking the vocal throughout. The shedloads of melody in the vocal, which is so metallic and edgy in it's delivery across the record makes Midday Committee stand out, as it's not something seen very often. Critics might argue this is a very similar track to A Part of Me from Neck Deep (with even the female guest vocal being in place), but there is something about Just Me And You which differentiates it. The song treads a perfect line between the aforementioned Neck Deep song and If It Means A Lot To You from Florida's A Day To Remember. It's another brilliant song.

What of the rest of the EP? Second track I Swear To God... doesn't have quite as catchy a chorus as other songs here, but does have a seething, aggressive chorus, with the anger bubbling beneath the surface in the gravelly lyrics like a volcano. The chorus does give a nice contrast to the rest of the song, the melody cooling it off somewhat, it just feels slightly out of place.

Maybe I Should has a very choppy and bouncy style to it, which works well. It's energetic and enthusiastic, almost like a new puppy in pop-punk form. Again the vocal delivery has a grainy and gritty edge: as, indeed, do the honest and true lyrics. I found myself not listening out for those too much, however, almost letting the song wash over me.

Casino stands out only since it's the weakest track on the seven-song EP. It feels a bit like an after thought, and perhaps a slightly lazy effort from the band. Games Been Called is a return to form, if perhaps being a slightly more generic rock song. It does, however, show the band's flexibility and talent.

Girls In Open C is brilliant EP. It's one I approached with a level of caution, which was well and truly thrown back in my face. Look out for this South Coast quartet: they could be massive.