One of the questions that have haunted indiethropologists for the last couple of decades is the issue of size: Is bigger, better?
Surely, small, weedy, wimpy indie is amongst the most loathsome of musical genres? The likes of Belle & Sebastian, The Field Mice and Hefner are roundly scorned wherever they lamely stumble. But big? Then we're moving into the world of Starsailor bluster, Muse power ballads, Embrace bombast and Noel Gallagher 'slowies'. And with the death of the aforementioned mountain-top indie kingpins, the field is wide open for someone to come in and champion their own personal view of what makes the perfect indie-scape.
Thirteen Senses are emphatically placing their eggs in the basket marked "fucking huge". 'Do No Wrong' sounds like Coldplay's 'Spies' but with bigger cojohones. Teetering piano and guitar riffs tumble out over singer Will South's gentle falsetto, with a giant wide-eyed chorus wedged on the backend of the verse which is custom built to take no prisoners. It's essentially the most featherlite bulldozer ever created.
Of course, in the grand tradition of epic indie, 'Do No Wrong' seems to be about nothing in particular - all moody poses and kohl-eyed grimaces, but it is very, very convincing. Grandeur is a given; but success is not. While we wait with gothic capes on to see whether Thirteen Senses will the the next purveyors of perfect indie, or simply another Puressence, this time round, we give them the benefit of the doubt.
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8Gareth Dobson's Score