Rock music freighted with a bluesy bluster and a sneery animus towards its betters; in the abstract, what Oasis did always made such fantastic sense. Pity their tunes were so duff, though. Give it up then for this year’s model, IV Thieves (you say it as ‘four thieves’, incidentally) who conjure a bad-ass retro swagger but make sure to pack some tunes before leaving the house.
From Nottingham, IV Thieves used to trade as Nic Armstrong And The Thieves and, obviously, were dreadful (no band should have the word Nic in its name, not even a very ironic one). Re-christened and re-booted, IV Thieves kick up a hothouse furor on If We Can’t Escape...
‘Take This Heart’ grabs fistfuls of block rockin’ jam kickin’ bar-room rocker clichés and makes them sound new and vital; ‘You Can’t Love What You Don’t Understand’ has the shimmer and yearning of ‘Live Forever’, but none of its mono-brow machismo. Why is this band not dripping in hype? Never mind all those Libertines clones vying for your ear – IV Thieves are IV real.