Saturday 28/10/06 Envy And Other Sins, Winterkids @ In The City, Manchester

In the City’s spiritual home may just be the Night and Day Café, many pay homage on a drizzly Saturday night. Six bands, so little time, but Gigwise will try and wax lyrical about the lower echelons of the line up.

Winterkids live up to their moniker with warm apparel and cosy tunes. They’ve picked up momentum of late, bolstered by Steve Lamacq’s backing and some radio play. With a pungent scent of new wave and keyboard-laden melodies, the Home Counties begin to sound more glamorous after the first couple of songs. However the Guildford gentry start to wane four songs in, sounding familiar, derivative and hollow.

‘Art rock’ is all well and good until it has the potential to be nominated for the Turner Prize for being ‘ironic’. Winterkids are at their best when they’re at their most direct, drawing from Pulp’s laconic vitriol and Depeche Mode’s 80s sheen. 

Next up we have Envy and Other Sins. Now gimmicks for any pop purist maybe akin to a cocaine addiction or doing a ‘Kid A’: perfectly acceptable in moderation and even beneficial in the right circumstances, but often a recipe for critical reluctance. Like nautical clothing worn by middle aged women in the West Midlands there’s not a direct link to Envy and Other Sins’ Dickensian homage.

They  not only parade a variety of bonnets, flat caps, blazers and grandfather shirts but offer a candid view of old-fashioned unadulterated burlesque; coupled with a passion that would turn your most busty damsel rosy cheeked. Moll Flanders’ backing band perhaps? Or the flag bearers for ‘New Bordello’? This may be indulgence gone mad, but their attention to detail is impressive, no less reflected in the songs. Boundlessly up-beat but still managing to feed off the spite and malice being conjured up in the lyrics. Evoking Muse at their most foolhardy, but EAOS play with a limited palette that does away with needless flourishes.

A truly joyful affair: melodic without being overbearing, ironic without being pretentious, these boys might recognise that while their gimmick is playful, their songs will give them a better fighting chance.