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Sol de Coda - Crazy Beautiful EP

Sol De Coda are songwriter Karl Rhodes and producer Paul Wiltshire. Karl says that he doesn't want to 'change the world or rock the planet' and is unlikely to do so with this demo.

The songs are nice enough and are played at a pace that is, at times, audaciously slow. They also display a high degree of competence on a number of instruments and showcase Karl's excellent singing voice that falls somewhere between Bono and James Walsh. It is fairly close in spirit to Four Tet - although this is more song-based and less electronic, the pace is similar and the Spanish sounding guitar is prevalent throughout.

Opening track Crazy Beautiful sounds like any of the ballads that U2 have released in recent years – it could very well actually be Bono on vocals if I didn't know otherwise. In all fairness this track is probably better than most of U2's efforts but unfortunately that isn't particularly difficult these days. Rather than being the blissful, relaxing song that its author is probably after, it is actually quite irritating.

Next track Her Addiction continues in the same vein with this particular U2 tribute also sounding a bit like Shawn Mullin's 'Lullaby'. The instrumentalism is actually rather nice but it doesn't really go anywhere – it just meanders aimlessly. And the Bono vocals really are uncanny. There are much more obvious targets to be unkind to in reviews but Sol De Coda give the impression that they could do so much more with their obvious talents.

Finally Found is a vast improvement from the outset – an uncertain piano intro interrupted by a trippy drum track and vocals that sound much more distressed - like Starsailor's James Walsh without the histrionics. The song continues in this manner but manages to move between different passages effectively – beat heavy sections, almost silent interludes and a vocal line that takes the listener on a journey rather than dawdles behind. It really is an excellent track and one which should show Sol De Coda that they can achieve their targets by their own means.

Everybody Hides also sees them step out of the comfort zone and find something much more moving. The lyrics in particular are very poignant but this is emphasised by the way they are delivered – to be honest, the first two tracks could have been like Shakespeare but wouldn't have interested me. A finger picked guitar and wilting strings add to the falsetto brilliantly in another superb track.

I would doubt that I'm the first person to sum up this EP in such a way but hopefully it will ensure that Sol De Coda will spend much more time developing songs to rival the last two tracks here – it would make one hell of a demo.