Glasgow quartet that are spoken about with enthusiasm in all the right places right now. “Steal Your Heart” demonstrates a sound that is relatively unique for a Scottish indie band. The vocals, with that strong sense of accent and identity as is becoming more and more prevalent these days, are right upfront in a mix of soft voiced biting determination and yearning anthemic conviction while, instrumentally, the rhythm section chugs along slowly, as the guitars cut through the air in a higher register, all around the main body of the song, the whole lot sounding almost like they were recorded in the next room, but to great effect as it turns out. The pace of the song is what you'd call “purposely plodding” in a positive sense, while the chorus, at this pace, actually impinges itself into your consciousness more than you'd have thought. Curiously, the more you play this, the more you want to play this. The second track is a live acoustic rendition of “Shook To The Bones” and is a very pleasant, bouncy song delivered with Scottish emotion and its “roots” on display, as the crisp backing of acoustic strumming and, later on, high-register electric guitar delicacy, provide the texture as the vocal tells its story on a short example of the band's folk-roots background.
“Blood Red” strats with a memorable, clean-cut electric guitar riff that almost reminds you of Big Country, then, when you sail into the song itself, this comparison is furthered even more as the delivery becomes a more “stripped-down” example of the finest early days of that band's career. There's more of the distinctive vocal, while this time the pace is more accelerated as the rhythm section strengthen and the guitar lines give us riffs and hooks around which the song revolves so successfully. The singer delivers a song with conviction while the hooks and chorus are the sort which, combined with those guitar lines, will stick around in your head for days, in this case, no bad thing. The second track is a remix of the first, initially just vocal over what sounds like a synthesized brass band, still retaining the hallmarks of the song, and eventually mutating into ghostly electronics before the rumble of synths is heard and the song becomes this massive, fast-paced slice of techno-dance which, amazingly, gives a whole new slant to the song, becoming the sort of song you can dance to at discos between concerts without losing your appetite for the original. But just as you're ready for this, the thing drops back into an almost ska-laced middle section before finally deciding it is a dance track and going back into things. Bizarre, but it works for what it tries to be.