Olympus Mons - Nothing's Gonna Spoil My Day Today
London trio, Olympus Mons (and not the rock band from France by the same name), release their debut album, Nothing’s Gonna Spoil My Day Today, just two years after forming. In those brief two years the band have been getting a lot of attention from their live shows including picking up the Best Unsigned Band award from Play Music as well as student music and an award from Fopp record store.
First thing to point out is for a debut album the band have not held back having put down sixteen tracks covering just under an hours worth of jazzed up music which at times could be considered progressive and experimental but do you get your moneys worth?
Well, the initial thing that hits you is the lead singers voice. Aaron McIntosh has one of those strained voices which you are either going to fall in love with or just want to run a mile from, kind of a bit like the Marmite adverts inflicted on us.
The music itself has shades of Bloc Party and a rapidly up and coming band from Yorkshire called Skeletons about it. It certainly isn’t at that level but the different styles Olympus Mons have thrown in could easily become a complete mess but it doesn’t, they do work with great effect too.
Kicking off with “As Long As Our Feet Walk” a slow relaxed opener but soon picks the pace up with Norbet and Moran adding their bass and drum skills on “Eye For An Eye”, “Follow You Down” and the impressive “Give Action Purpose”.
We then have two interlude songs cleverly called “Interlude 1” and “Interlude 2” both of which are exceedingly short but long enough to show off Aaron McIntosh’s solo guitar and vocals.
The album does start to make you think 57 minutes is too long. If each of the songs were heard first then they would be considered pretty good but after 30 minutes of the album they become a struggle. Which is a shame as there are some good songs towards the end like “Let The First Time Be The Last” and the slow build up “Sell Me To The Wind”. Whether this is down to the Aaron McIntosh’s voice, I can not be sure.
After time I did grow to like Marmite and with the fusion of music Olympus Mons create I believe I could grow to like the vocals too, especially seeing the price some retailers selling Nothing’s Gonna Spoil My Day Today for.