The Electric Soft Parade

Soft Parade are pretty much everything that is bad about the NME and its hype at the present time. With so much emphasis being put onto these young sprogsters as something really unique, the burden was likely to be too much, but one would hope that the press had at least heard something before heaping this praise upon them.

Clearly not, for tonight, the first of a three night residency at the Barfly for Soft Parade isn't even remotely full. Are the kids getting wise to the NME's lies? The trouble for the band lies in the fact that their sound isn't even remotely original. Bittersweet three minute pop songs with nothing but those bastardised American lo-fi vocals to steady the ever sinking ship.

When I mention that Soft Parade are young, i'm not joking. An average age of 17, gives me the impression a further six months of development wouldn't have gone a miss. Latest single 'Empty At The End' is purely simplistic indie guitar music with a thoroughly annoying bassline. Set ender and debut single 'Something To The Dark', teases with it's psychadelic guitar noodlings and persistant building, but with very little on offer at the end of the building, it's all as if the joke is on us.

In a nutshell, Soft Parade are flogging nothing but retread's of some talented American bands (hello Grandaddy/Flaming Lips) in a unfortunately lame manner. Disappointed doesn't even come close...