Brakes - Hey Hey Single Review

Review of Brakes' single Hey Hey.

Brakes lead singer Eamonn Hamilton doesn't do understatement. The quartet's latest biog entry starts with the hyperbolic claim 'We are fundamentally responsible for the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States of America'. Zeit-frickin'-geists all round.

Now revitalised and still basking in the critical praise heaped on their last album The Beatific Visions, the Sussex 'Supergroup' - sprung from former members of British Sea Power and Electric Soft Parade - are back sticking their fingers in other people's pies. There's just cause for Colin Murray to get excited again too, as 'Hey Hey' is the kind of bandy legged punk which The Vines used to be so good at, revolving around a gloriously lary guitar riff which knows when to get the hell out of dodge. The accompanying flipside 'Set A Course' is also an exercise in brevity, but reveals a softer focus country edge and ends up sounding rather like Nada Surf at their charming, anglicised best.

Worth the wait.

Andy Peterson