The BMI Sessions

Why don’t we just start with the inevitable? There’s really no point pussyfooting around the fact that this band used to be called thisGIRL. Sure, there’s a new chap tip-tapping on some keyboards whilst oohing and aahing over the top but how different is it going to be? I mean, really…

Accepting that it’s been just over a year since tG as we knew it announced their disarmament – a year that has seen all members try new things with new people in new way – it’s hardly surprising that the music that Skeletons create really does sound different.

The avant-garde-isms and quirky musical nuances that many once defined as ‘jazz-tinged’ or ‘grungey space-rock’ have been jettisoned in favour of a gamut of straightforward blues-led bar riffs.

With tinkling piano smoothly in like the background music in a grimy spaghetti western, the incorrigible Liam Creamer pastes his unmistakeable wail over the top of the classic-styled tunes, consolidating and compounding Skeletons.

He’s a livewire. He’s still a livewire. You can’t keep him out of the crowd. You can’t keep him in the crowd. If he was an inanimate object you’d say he had a life of his own. Luckily, his actions as the designated frontman are even more nonsensical and unpredictable that that description.

As per all brand new bands, however, much must be made of the quality and potential of the songs. It’s apparent that Skeletons have much in the way of style but is there any of the substance to match? On this evidence there is a lot.

Streamlining their name by clipping the ‘Salvation and the…’ prefix was a wise move and with the abundance of musical ideas that they’ve reined in and polished so that this band might just hit the heady heights that, for some inexplicable reason, thisGIRL failed to do.

Ultimately, this is because it appears they’ve got a new arsenal of songs to match their enigmatic ability. Accomplished musicianship, coupled with a early grab of catchy tunes that make me apply such clichés as “it’ll get you singing along” and “that verse just makes you tap your foot”.

It’s a shame because there’s little that’s hackneyed or dull about Skeletons and hopefully you’ll be able to find this all out for yourself in the coming months.