The Bishops - 'Bishops' (1234) Released 23/04/07

Not since The White Stripes ‘Elephant’ album have we heard from Liam Watson and his Toe Rag studios (Famous for only using analogue equipment) but The Bishops have turned to the East London studio to record their debut LP. The Bishops are well suited to using antiquated and outdated equipment as they themselves seem to have been involved in some ‘Life On Mars’ style experiment and as a result play their songs as if it’s 1962 at The Cavern Club.

‘Menace About Town’ is Lennon and Mcartney in all but name, a simple pop rock song with a good beat and hand claps a plenty. ‘Breakaway’ begins with a ripping riff that jumps along at a great pace before breaking down into a Blues rock stomp, ‘The Only Place I Can Live’ meanwhile is a La’s esque melody driven track with scratchy guitars. So what if it sounds forty years old these songs are good, good music is timeless. ‘I Can’t Stand It Anymore’ carries on in the same vein with fuzzy basslines and soaring multi-vocal parts that ends all too suddenly. ‘Life In A Hole’ however lacks any real conviction and shows that whilst The Bishops do a good line in old school rock it sometimes falls apart.

‘Say Hello’ gets things back on track though with a distorted vocal and menacing sonic landscape, simple but effective- plus it doesn’t sound old fashioned. Result! From here on in however the album seems to run out of ideas (Or bands to rip off) ‘In The Night’, ‘Travelling Our Way Home’ and ‘So High’ all sound like previous tracks on the LP and lack anything particularly unique.

There is nothing wrong with loving old bands, the trick is to take their spirit and musical outlook rather than their actual tunes. It is possible to write a song like The Beatles without sounding like you have spent hours poring over ‘Revolver’ to achieve the exact same musical style. The Bishops are nothing more than a band with kitsch value, good for a bit but acting more as a timely reminder of how good the originals were.