Latest aboard the Springsteen revival juggernaut, Goldhawks are from deepest west London but their sound is unabashed blue-jean Americana. Singing in the ragged yelp of someone raised in the shadow of New Jersey smokestacks rather than in dreary W12, frontman Bobby Cook has an undeniable talent for lyrical bombast: his songs strain beneath the dead weight of Born To Run-esque monikers like ‘Keep The Fire’, ‘Running Away and ‘Everytime I See You Cry’, whilst his couplets evoke such Bono-esque images as a “world going up in flames”.
No faulting Goldhawks’ enthusiasm, nor their facility for super-dense, Coldplay-like riffs. Underneath, though, everything rings hollow. Amid all the earnestness, it’s hard to work out what, exactly, Goldhawks wish to say other than that, they’ve probably listened to Born In The USA more often than is recommended, unless you happen to be a member of Gaslight Anthem.
In this country, we can be (rightly) leery of British music’s faddiness and its distrust of anything approaching sincerity or genuine emotion. But if the alternative to 100 new Top Shop bands every year is a lumbering Frankenstein monster comprising random bits of Joshua Tree, Springsteen and Chris Martin... frankly the next crop of Shoreditch chancers can’t get here soon enough.