Air Traffic – ‘Shooting Star’

Good God, the radio friendly guitar pop assembly line has spewed out one more band. Following in the footsteps of the likes of Ghosts and Morning Runner this is yet another group that could yet step up to Snow Patrol and Coldplay level. In fairness, that’s doing Air Traffic a slight disservice. In particular, Tom Pritchard’s guitar has a jagged, spiky side to it that suggests he may yet help Air Traffic distinguish themselves from the hordes of pretenders. However, the rest of ’Shooting Star’ is what you’d expect, from the swelling piano and heavy drums to Chris Wall’s plaintive vocals, all of which suggest that they’ve been reading The Guide To Writing A Summer Anthem.

‘Shooting Star’ is reasonably effective but it sounds so similar to so much else out there that it’s hard to muster much exhilaration at the prospect of hearing it again. Expect it to get heavy use once the new football season kicks off though, as it’s a sound built for those end of game video packages that Sky love. Perfect for video packages but fairly standard in every other aspect, Air Traffic have failed to soar here.

Released 18/06/07 on Tiny Consumer/EMI Records