Spinto Band - Nice And Nicely Done Album Review

The Spinto Band
Nice And Nicely Done
Album Review
(Virgin)

Apart from The Little Brown Jug nag racing event and one of shoegazing's finest original bands the Drop Nineteens, the Ohio city of Delaware hasn't had that much to shout about. So it is probably something of an achievement that The Spinto Band, a six piece formed around two years ago after singing guitarist Nick Krill discovered a collection of written music in his grandfather's loft.

Since then, its been something of an upwardly mobile rise for the sextet, as their previous two releases ('Brown Boxes' and 'Direct To Helmet' – both featured on here) have received a plethora of critical acclaim culminating in a recent sold out tour in their spiritual home of Great Britain. Which is an oddment in itself – the fact they seem to have cracked the market to a larger degree over here than in their homeland – because these songs quite clearly epitomise what has come to be expected of the American college rock scene since the likes of Weezer's 'Pinkerton' and the Fountains Of Wayne's eponymous debut back in 1996 gave a more stateside alternative to Britpop.

'Nice And Nicely Done' then is where it all started for The Spinto Band, this ten track recording proving to be the catalyst that got the band a record deal in the first place. Until now, it hasn't had a general release in this country, being available only on import, but now with the band's success set to go overground in the mainstream, now seems as good a time as any to get their collective aural musings out to the masses.

To be fair to the Spintos, although the Weezer/FoW comparisons are inevitable, and quite glaringly obvious in places (see 'Did I Tell You' and 'Trust vs. Mistrust' for instance), they also doff their caps quite blatantly across the Atlantic to the classic Beatpop songwriting of people like the Beatles and the Kinks, as the gorgeous 'Brown Boxes' clearly illustrates, while 'Late' is almost a Harvard foundered update on Dave Gedge's 'George Best' era and makes fascinating listening, even if the end result was probably unintentional.

Although this record is quite samey in places, it is a perfectly valid introduction to the world of The Spinto Band meaning the anticipated arrival of their first proper album becomes an even more mouth-watering prospect.

3.5/5
Dom Gourlay