Drive by Argument – ‘Sex Lines are Expensive'

Drive by Argument just screams emo doesn’t it? And, certainly, on ‘Sex Lines are Expensive Comedy’, the quintet, formed as part of a university project, demonstrate that they’ve studied their style guides very closely indeed. Opening with a thick slice of keyboard grind, ‘Sex lines…’ swirls across the speakers to entice our earlobes in a little closer. Not that there’s much point, however, because from their on out it’s all very formulaic. Synth riffs and arpeggios saturate the arrangement, drum-fills batter the high-hat, and front-man Stoke underpins the whole thing by hollering something completely nonsensical in his bid to ape Robert Smith. It’s not that the project lacks energy of course, but rather just feels far too reverential for its own good. Sometimes the old lines are the best, but here, without a novel twist, they’re just expensive comedy.

Released 11/06/07 on One Records