One Night Only have been tipped for big things in 2008. It’s a safe bet going by this glossy debut of arena friendly indie anthems, nuzzled somewhere between The Killers' grand gestures and Coldplay’s sweeping melodies. Okay, so no-one will accuse One Night Only of re-inventing the wheel, but their sure-footed songcraft, and earnest, unfussy delivery earmarks them as potential upper echelon chart botherers.
They certainly aren’t targeting any hipper-than-thou cool cachet with this album. There’s a likeable, unpretentious air to the record, shorn of bells and whistles, sticking to a workmanlike and thoroughly efficient ten songs spread over forty minutes. The simple approach – reminiscent of those veterans the Arctic Monkey’s and their uncomplicated take on the oeuvre – could be down to the tender 17 years of band spearhead George Craig, whose clarity of vision and dynamism is unburdened with years of pervasive music influences or lofty conceits.
Instead they focus on conjuring earworm melodies, with epic hooks and a populist sing-along charm. Opening gambit ‘Just For Tonight’, the jaunty ‘You and Me’ (which deftly purloins, knowing or unknowingly, a couplet from Lisa Loeb’s ‘Stay’), and the shimmering swell of ‘Time’ all are sprinkled with more than enough classic indie-rock inspiration. Occasional lapses into generic, by-the-numbers territory are forgiven with the synth layered bombast of ‘It’s Alright’ and the angsty closer ‘Hide’. A promising debut then, but One Night Only are just getting started.