Air Traffic: Never Even Told Me Her Name EP
Aw, fuck no. I wrote up this entire review and then went to run a quick fact-check on one of the statements I made regarding the Fray and their MySpace page fucking crashed my internet and took my unsaved review with it. As if I needed another reason to hate the Fray.
Anyway, here’s the gist of it. With “Never Even Told Me Her Name”, Air Traffic have written a great (and I mean GREAT) piano-based pop song. Their contract with EMI has them primed for mainstream dominance in the UK and “Never Even Told Me Her Name” is a great first step towards fulfilling that destiny. I love it, I love them - great single, that’s the bottom line. However, Air Traffic are not a “cool” band by any stretch of the word and there’s a definite chance that this time next year we won’t be able to stand them. Furthermore, Snow Patrol has paved the way for another British rock group to experience chart success in the US right now and the Fray have the public primed to eat up the next catchy, piano-based rock group to down the pipeline, so the current climate of the US market indicates vast crossover potential for Air Traffic as well. Whether things pan out like that or not we’ll have to wait and see, but “Shooting Star” indicates Air Traffic to be heading in that Fray-tastic direction sooner rather than later.
“Shooting Star” is only included on the EP-single in demo form, but I can easily see the finished product sitting atop the UK Top 40 for weeks at a time and being the catalyst for the band’s introduction into the US market. “Shooting Star” is not a bad song at all - no one can deny it’s addictiveness and its easily the most epic and ambitious song Air Traffic have ever penned - it’s just that all of its elements add up to create a song that could do some serious damage on the charts, so it’s like I’m already forming a defensive reaction to its impending omnipresence. Personally, I can hear shades of the Fray and even - *gasp* - Something Corporate here, and that anthemic chorus has me downright scared to see what this will do once its released as a single (which I can only assume will happen sometime next year). For the time being, though, we can only wait and revel in the fact that, for now, Air Traffic are writing exciting, incredibly fun piano rock songs better than anyone else out there. Let’s just hope it stays that way.
MP3s:
“Never Even Told Me Her Name” - Air Traffic ((highly recommended))
“Shooting Star” (Demo) - Air Traffic
And while we’re on the topic of kinda-lame UK pop bands, can we talk about how infuriatingly catchy Captain’s “Glorious” is?! It’s killing me to be so addicted to a song by a band whose making their name in England by touring with Keane and then The Feeling, but that candy-coated synth line and that chorus (THAT FUCKING CHORUS) just refuse to extricate themselves from my brain. See if you can fare any better.
MP3: “Glorious” - Captain