Diamond Nights – Once We Were Diamonds / 2005 Kemado / 5 Tracks / http://www.diamond-nights.com / http://www.kemado.com / Reviewed 25 April 2005
The white digipak that this EP came in was really a good tool for hiding the music contained within. The EP starts off with “Destination Diamonds”, a track that mixes equal parts Boston with Weezer, maintaining the technical virtuosity of the former with the irony of the latter. The vocals here are low-key, really allowing the superior instrumentation to shine through. This really ameliorates one of the problems concerning bands like The Killers, The Bravery and The Darkness; over-brown, egotistic lead singers wreaking havoc on a track. Both vocal and instrumental are given equal footing on this track, sweetened even more by the strong arrangement and egalitarian nature of the track. The split focus of Diamond Nights during “Destination Diamonds” is dropped for a full-blown case of the arena rocks, with "Dirty Thief” looking towards “Heat of the Moment” and Loverboy. 2005 is just the culmination of the retro-rock movement that really allows indielitists to drop their pretensions for a second and really embrace music that would have mortified them a scant year before.
Even though punk was created largely as a result of the style of music that Diamond Nights are playing on the “Once We Were Diamonds” EP, Diamond Night has really tempered their sound to reflect the entire punk movement. Hints of Husker Du and The Replacements surface throughout the disc even as sacrifices are made at the altar of Kansas and Styx. The synth that makes such a strong presence in “The Girl’s Attractive” really represents a shift in the band’s sound that is further evidenced by the assumption of a Billy Idol-esque sneer. Even if the track recalls “Rebel Yell”, it also represents the lowest point of a disc that soared high without the inclusion of such impersonal elements.
The formula that worked so well for Diamond Nights on the prior tracks on “Once We Were Diamonds” is resurrected for “Saturday Fantastic”, another low-key but hard-rocking track. Diamond Nights is the final piece in a puzzle that has been a long time coming; from the dance-punk of The Rapture and Electric Six to the hasher-rock of The Darkness, Diamond Nights provides the next evolutionary step. This may only be an EP, but the effect it has on the average listener is immeasurable. The full-length will be troubling for Diamond Nights, as very few individuals in this style (I’m only coming up with The Aeffect) are able to stretch singles and EPs into a solid full-length.
Top Tracks: Dirty Thief
Rating: 7.1/10