A lot has happened in The Radio camp since their highly acclaimed Kindness debut of a few years back, not least the appearance of the track ‘Whatever Gets You Through Today’ in the smash US TV series Grey’s Anatomy.
The tune also features on the bestselling soundtrack album accompanying the show, and is being used extensively in a radio campaign for UK Cancer Research.
All of which should make for a ready audience for album number two from the Dublin outfit, who started life as a studio-only project. We're happy to report that Charm Offensive more than lives up to expectations, oozing the kind of breezy confidence that worldwide exposure of this magnitude must surely bring to the party.
The Radio have achieved the near-impossible feat of sounding comfortingly familiar without coming across as remotely derivative. The terrific single, ‘One Of Two Ways’, sets the mood with its jerky guitar riff, punky pop melody courtesy of vocalist Sue Rose and a bit of Moog running through it for good measure. If there’s a better indie-pop tune gracing the airwaves at the moment, I’ve yet to hear it.
The second single to be taken from the album, ‘Manmade’, combines a taut, metronomic rhythm with keyboards and guitars. The resulting song has a strong ‘80s synth pop feel - the guitar line actually mimics the intro to OMD’s ‘Enola Gay’.
The only thing that threatens to spoil the party is some overly bright production/mastering that makes a few tracks hard to listen to. Thus, ‘All I Need’ doesn’t quite pack the sonic punch it ought to, while the otherwise sublime ‘The Other Side Of Life’ comes across as way too trebly and “toppy”.
Otherwise, though, this is a gem of a record which will surely propel The Radio to even greater heights.