Less Deceived: Average Songs About The Best Days Of Our Lives

Artist: Less Deceived
Title: Average Songs About The Best Days Of Our Lives
Format Reviewed: MP3
Format Released: 6th October 2015
Reviewed By: Dan Stoten

One of my favourite things about (a large amount of) punk rock is it's downright honesty and grit. There's nothing better than listening to a band who are singing openly about the real experiences they've had, and who put into musical format their years of growing up and things they got up to during those formative times.

Hull's Less Deceived do this in abundance, and they do so with a real sense of gritty and optimistic honesty. There's nothing fancy or flash in this five-track EP: it's just good, honest melodic punk rock in the FEST style.

There's not much variation across the five tracks here: each are jam-packed with singalong choruses, raucous and gruff harmonies, simple lyrics and generally a massive sense of fun. Each track has a driving drumbeat, earnest guitar-playing and gruff, throaty vocal which is easy to shout along to.

And you know what? Sometimes that's all you need: there's not always a need to add anything more to music.

My favourite track of the five is the impossibly catchy Obscure References For A Disinterested Audience: the gruff lyrics at times are almost spat out with real malevolence, while the repeated refrain of "I'll always regret this / but I can't go back" drills into the listener's head like a punk rock woodpecker. It's passionate, it's driving and it's filled with energy: it's a brilliant example of simple melodic punk rock that feels instantly familiar but not repetitive.

I Used To Own A Crass T-Shirt follows a similar pattern, but has a slightly more street-punk feel to it with the riff-heavy and marching style it contains. There's some brilliant use of gang-vocal here too, which while questionable in terms of the harmonies, adds another layer of that hugely likeable honesty I've mentioned.

Lead single My Main Weakness Is How Weak I Am for me is actually one of the marginally weaker songs on the record: it doesn't quite have the same hooks as the other tracks here. The chorus isn't quite as catchy: it's a little more frantic and feels slightly like it loses it's way. That's not to say it's a poor track: it just doesn't have that same qualities as the others.

I really enjoyed listening to this EP. It's simple and likeable, easily accessible and just a really good fun record. Any fans of Red City Radio could just have found their British equivalent, and it's a real shame they're not playing amongst their peers at this year's FEST 14.