Plastic Heroes - Escape the Lower End

  by Russell Ferguson

published: 11 / 8 / 2008

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Review

‘Escape The Lower End’ is the debut CD by Plastic Heroes, who were formed over three years ago by vocalist Marc Oliver and bass player Simon Nelson. This record starts with a decent enough song ‘Lover Boy’, but it’s never enough to convince you one way or another which way to go, and whether to like it or not.‘Every Day’ the second song on the CD, again tries to convince you that you are listening to a decent record, but as before it just fails to convince. The next song ‘All These Scenes’ has a similar fate and it falls short of the mark. The fourth song ‘Flying (ITN)’ again doesn’t do enough to keep your attention and you find yourself starting to want the songs to end to get to the next one. It takes a lot of will power to stop yourself from skipping on to the next track. You get the idea by now, don’t you ? From the first note this record promises a lot but you soon realize that it offers very little and it leave you feeling very flat and very let down. Plastic Heroes are a London based four piece who it seems have done a lot of supporting with the likes of Bloc Party, Art Brut and the Subways. In theory this CD has all the right elements and it should be a good record, but it just falls short all the time and it’s hard to put your finger on why it’s so poor. It has a rocky side, reasonable lyrics; it even has a shiny cover for all those of you that have a magpie gene. The whole sound has a very 70’s feel to it which isn’t that surprising given that these guys are influenced by a lot of 60's bands such as Iggy Pop, the Kinks, Motown, the Beach Boys and the New York Dolls to name buy a few. Marc Oliver tries to be different with his singing, but all that happens is that it sounds contrived and warbling and it becomes almost a parody of itself in much the same way Spinal Tap does. This record tries to be a very big sound in the same way as ‘Tommy’, the rock opera by the Who, does, but it just falls flat on it’s face as these guys do not have the class or experience to pull it off. These guys are punching well above their weight and it shows. Would you put a featherweight boxer in with Mike Tyson ? No ? Nor would I, but these guys are trying just that and the outcome is inevitable. Not so much as a bloody nose on the face of Plastic Heroes. More like stretched off to A & E needing a hundred and fifty five stitches to the face.

Track Listing:-

1 Lover Boy
2 Every Day (Is For You)
3 All These Scenes
4 Flying (ITN)
5 Mary B!
6 Fame By Proxy
7 Television (Sucks Me In)
8 Plastic Heroes
9 Got Good Real Fast
10 The Boy
11 Fifteen Years
12 Whispering (ITN)