Album Review: Tribes – Baby

Camden four-piece Tribes have been hyped up by some of the UK music press (most notably the NME) as a band that can save UK rock ‘n’ roll from the doldrums that it is currently in. Whilst that is a tall order for a fledgling band still finding its feet and developing its own sound, Baby is a solid enough start for Tribes, and certainly better than the post-Blur dead-end of the Kaiser Chiefs or the deplorable faux-indie of the likes of Pigeon Detectives and The Kooks. Frank Black was impressed enough upon hearing their early singles to invite Tribes to open for indie rock royalty the Pixies, a band they are heavily indebted to. The morale boosting support from Black allied with successful use of MySpace to share their early songs, has built a bit of momentum for the band, and the Mike Crossey helmed Baby is the next step after the We Were Children EP.

For the most part on their debut album Tribes fuse a grungy Pixies/Nirvana stomp with glam rock sheen, and top it off with lighter in the air choruses Rivers Cuomo or Brandon Flowers might be proud of. Songs such as ‘Corner Of An English Field’ (which references the deceased Ou Es Le Swimming Pool frontman Charles Haddon, a close friend of singer/guitarist Johnny Lloyd) and ‘We Were Children’ (which features a lead riff suspiciously similar to the Pixies’ classic ‘Where Is My Mind’) are undeniably catchy and disarming, and show Tribes are capable of writing anthems that Joe Public will no doubt warm to.

Opener ‘Whenever’ and the penultimate ‘Alone Or With Friends’ are not without their charm either, but ‘Himalaya’ is a ponderously slow song that doesn’t really go anywhere particularly interesting, and ‘Nightdriving’ is a tepid effort that wanders inadvertently into Coldplay territory.

Baby is certainly no masterpiece, and the overwhelming feeling while listening to the album is that its songs, though sometimes pleasant, are largely derivative of far superior bands past work. But is no disaster either, and taken on its own merits is a fairly enjoyable listen, and somewhat effective nostalgia trip back to the early 1990s. Also, you get the feeling that many of these 11 songs would translate pretty well on the festival circuit in the summer.

By William David Wilson