The Playwrights – English Self Storage / 2005 Sink & Stove / 8 Tracks / http://www.theplaywrights.co.uk / http://www.sinkandstove.co.uk / Reviewed 11 February 2006

The Playwrights play a very open-ended style at the beginning of their “English Self Storage”; “Why We’ve Become Invisible” mixes together elements as disparate as Madness and New Order, while enrobing their influences with a contemporary style. “Fear Of Open Spaces” starts off in a very positive style, with an interesting vocal pacing by the vocalist from the onset. Including a slightly-angular guitar style to their repertoire for the track, The Playwrights keep the flames of discovery going even as they settle into a specific style. During tracks like “Dislocate”, The Playwrights even tread onto ground that has been hallowed since acts like Gary Numan previously tread so many years ago.

Considering that The Playwrights are what an individual would call indie rock, the vitality espoused by the band may just be enough to give them an inside track as contenders for radio play when this album comes out in March. Continuing a sound that is reminiscent of the aforementioned Numan’s “Cars” for “Central Heating in the Summer Season”, The Playwrights move far beyond the self-imposed Spartanism of an earlier era to completely assault listeners with a number of different genres and influences. The intricate vocal output of The Playwrights throughout the entirety of “English Self Storage” may just be the main selling point of the album; like the storied Jethro Tull before them, it is primarily through the vocals that individuals are socialized here. There is no lack in talent providing the music on “English Self Storage”, though, and songs like “Movements Towards A Paperless Life” show a thoughtfulness by the band to both listeners and vocalists alike.

Tracks are not the fly by night two or three minute-lasting ones that are put on disc by many of an indie rock band, but show a maturity that allows The Playwrights to stick with each composition to the point that most of the songs on “English Self Storage” are twice that. However intricate The Playwrights get, there always seems to be a cultivation of the sort of sound that opened up the disc; while there are always different-sounding outputs by the band, they all play on some common thread. Their odd and shambling approach to music has virtually been unheard in popular circles; “English Self Storage” is the example of an album that sounds weird now, but will act as a blueprint in ten or fifteen years. Pick it up.

Top Tracks: Where The Stress Falls, Dislocated

Rating: 6.1/10

[JMcQ]