I love this album, but why in God’s name am I reviewing it? I mean we focus purely on minor label and self-released artists who deserve and need the publicity. ‘The Special Guests!’ should already be on the largest of largest labels, selling millions of records and hobnobbing with Carson Daly and his ilk.
A & R men should be stabbing each other in the eyes with pencils in their attempts to get this Canadian four piece to put their name to a contract. Sure they don’t fit into the current three popular trends, which is as many as most major record label talent people can cope with, but still they are commercial pop gold. Pure, unadulterated, indie leaning, hook laden, song driven dynamite. Oh and for those who care the current ‘approved’ three trends are (a) nubile, blond teen ‘singers’ (b) rock-rap crossovers and (c) boy-bands. Those who guessed Latin-explosion should understand that that is ’so last year’.
Anyway back to the band in hand, ‘The Special Guests!’ took their name from the generic support slot blurb on posters. An ironic twist upon a generic formula, a description that pretty accurately sums up the band themselves. Their music retreads well-known musical and lyrical themes, but does it with enough class, originality and youthful verve to make it all their own. A difficult trick to pull off, let alone on a debut record, they appear to do it with out even breaking sweat.
Take opener ‘Take them Higher’, swirling guitar leads into thumping percussion and a classic indie riff before some pretty sweet harmonies deliver the lyrics based around the classic old rhyme couplet of ‘high’ and ‘fly’, in this case modified to ‘higher’ and ‘flyer’. Nothing here that hasn’t been done by thousands of post-Beatles bands, particularly following that whole ‘Oasis’ thang (Noel Gallagher best songwriter of his generation, my arse).
In the same way as two different cooks can take the same ingredients and come up with some very different tasting dishes, so ‘The Special Guests’ rise above basic ingredients to produce a pop classic that enters your head like an arrow, and is about as easy to remove. As obvious a single as it has ever been my privilege to hear.
Second is ‘Everybody’ another three-minute slice of pop heaven. This time built around an intoxicating groove and chorus. If this song doesn’t have you singing along by your second listen, then you need to go back to your parents basement, stare at the Marilyn Manson poster a little more and come back in a couple of years.
Track three has no intention of letting down its predecessors, ‘Don’t be Cruel’ is as catchy as what has come before. In fact the entire album is about as infectious as a beer soaked prostitute during Mardi Gras. Just over ten minutes in and I have to admit I am sold: hook, line and sinker.
‘The Special Guests’ comprise of Adam Kitteridge on vocals and guitar, Jocelyn Greenwood on bass, Brendan Pye on drums and vocals and Piers Henwood provides both guitar and piano. Young, good looking in a ‘blur-geeky’ way and with a female bassist. Seriously A & R men you should be sharpening your pencils as you read this. That of course would be if you were reading this rather than padding your expense accounts at Spargos.
The rest of the album continues on in a similar vein, it occasional takes it foot off the ‘pop’ pedal a little to experiment, but it is undeniably in the world of three-minute flashes of pop gold that they shine strongest, and there is plenty of that on ‘First Album’. There are at least five guaranteed singles on this album, and it is unfortunate that they seem at the moment unlikely to reach the levels of audience they deserve. Here is hoping by the second album they are far too well known to be featured on such a little site as this.

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