WHB

We Have a Band’s debut record starts off with the kind of pounding pianos, reverberating guitar, and soaringly sincere male vocals that have become so common, I assume they’re created by a plug-in at the mastering stage. Yet... I don’t hate it. WHB take things so unashamedly and melodically down the road towards eighties electronic pop music, that the end result is as retro-nostalgically satisfying as a Merchant Ivory film. Their singer sounds a little like Peter Gabriel but when the female vocals are added he starts to sound a bit like Phil Oakey and then when they do a bit of staccato sprach-gesang on Honeytrap, it’s a reminder of The Pet Shop Boys... or maybe even Madonna singing Vogue. Overall, with a straight backbeat and hyperactive high-hats helped along by groovily synthesised bass lines, there’s an undeniable Thatcherite drive to it all that makes me want go to wine bars, start a small business and consider house-ownership.