I suppose that I should read press releases. I suppose that I should eat vegetables too but that isn’t going to happen anytime soon. That said, I felt something akin to curiosity with regard to Phanilla after listening to their new EP “From The Dark”.
Said curiosity was triggered by the simple fact that Phanilla sounded older than they possibly could be. There was indeed the spectre of indie evident in some of their songs but, betwixt words and music, their special sauce was that of band who had secretly taken to worshiping the melody driven approach of bands that hailed from the west coast of America back in the days when radio airplay was a positive necessity to get any band on the path to success. Exorcism of the sounds and the mood of the past is far from unusual these days yet Phanilla manage to make all that they do sound fresh and, whilst not entirely relevant to the hellhole of our reality, this band nonetheless proves to be entirely capable of redirecting your entirely compliant consciousness off to a better place with “Glitter & Daffodils “ and “A Song For The Night”, in particular, containing more than their fair share of existential messages in a bottle.
With “From The Dark”, Phanilla -whoever they may be - prove themselves to be entirely worthy of the attention of your ears and, if your indie days of youth have passed into fond memory, there is the distinct possibility that this EP will fit easily into your playlist for today and, of course the old timers can even get “From The Dark” on a CD.