The Steps: The Steps

I'm really not sure about this one.  Upon first listen this eponymous release from Texans The Steps sounded alarmingly "pub rock".  You know, the sort of generic, "spiky" indie that characterized the early naughties UK charts.

Having thus summarily dismissed them, a week later I made a conscious effort to give them a second chance; a tactic that has saved me from missing out on some really rather good records lately.  And still it failed to impress.  Under normal circumstances this would simple mean that the record wouldn't get a review on these pages.  As a rule I try to avoid slagging off "unknown" bands (unless they're truly, chronically bad), owing to a certain amount of sympathy for their plight on my part.  New bands have enough to worry about without some blogger's half-baked negative review spoiling their Google kudos.

And thus we come to the crux of the matter... The Steps aren't terrible, and I actually quite like a couple of their songs (check out their video for Dagger: see what I mean? It's okay).  The problem is that they've got nothing new to offer.  Who needs another band who want to sound like The Strokes and The Hives? These guys are a little too late for the party (by about eight years) and are quite frankly just a little too boring.  They wear their influences on their sleeves and are sadly less than the sum of their parts.

The Steps - Dagger [audio //www.bearfacedrecords.com/EbMBlog_mp3s/TheSteps/TheSteps_Dagger.mp3]

The Steps - Cold Floors [audio //www.bearfacedrecords.com/EbMBlog_mp3s/TheSteps/TheSteps_ColdFloors.mp3]