A fragile little number you want to wrap your arms around.
January is a good time for bands to release a debut or hoped for breakthrough single. In days of old, the kids would have pockets full of record vouchers left over from Santa or well-minded relatives and the lull in sales would propel bands higher than they otherwise might have done. Those canny students of music Franz Ferdinand knew exactly this and unleashed 'Take Me Out' in the earliest part of the year, and everything else was history, much like the name of the bloke who got shot to kick off World War I.
The Bench Connection are deciding to release their debut single 'Young at last' in the New Year and RoomThirteen got an early listen to the single and you know what, it's rather lovely. A gentle count-in and strum giving way to some cooing vocals is setting itself up nicely for the dark nights and wrapping up cosily in front of a fire. As the track moves on and the keyboards add a light sprinkling under lyrics telling of bluetack holding things together there is a fragility and vulnerability on show, which is quite touching. Repeated listens may give the impression of a slightness to the song but when the female backing vocals of Julia Thornton nudge their way into consciousness, it's impossible to say anything bad about this first release.
For those with no knowledge of the band, a really easy tag to bring up would be the Oasis connection. Musically, there's no real connection, so non Gallagher lovers shouldn't be running for the hills too soon but there are some links. Matt Deighton stood in for Noel Gallagher when the guitarist had a fall-out with his brother, no doubt over something serious like who got the last Jaffa Cake or first lick of the spoon after someone made a cake for some gigs around Europe and keyboardist Mike Rowe played live with the band and also appears on record with the band, so for any serious Oasis observers, there should be some curiosity value in checking out this track.
It's nothing like them but it is well worth checking out- you can do so at their Myspace page.