Smalllife - Run Away

Hear The Track Here

There's no doubting that Smalllife have come from nowhere this year and stolen a lot of thunder in the process. Now on both Soundclick and MP3 Unsigned, this rock band from Stoke-on-Trent, have made a great many friends with their extremely high energy rock music gathering themselves three must haves from me in the process. In my own defence I have to admit that I am an absolute sucker for powerful performances and Smallife's tracks have been some of the most powerful I have heard this year and a prime indicator of how important an incubator of talent MP3 Unsigned is. This year Smalllife, The Shed, Redshirt Theory and many others have proved themselves eminently worthy of some year end awards of some kind - but especially Smallife and yes, that's because I love this kind of rock music - red in tooth and claw.

I think I'd tend to agree with Jaymz Lee Shaw (the main songwriter of the band) that this track does shade more towards metal than their usual fare, but it doesn't stop it doing the same trick as its predecessors; namely blowing your ears off. I've always been a headbanger (or nodder if I have smoked too much) and Smalllife always deliver a terrific mosh pit atmosphere and Run Away is that and a gob-a-thon in the time honoured punk tradition all at the same time. While it isn't as catchy and/or individualistic as (say) Christian or the superb Need To Buy A Woman, it's still a track that will go down great guns with the band's existing fans. Should you like rock (in all its forms) then you should definitely be checking into the racket Smalllife create because there is nothing small about it whatsoever.

In performance Run Away is exactly what I expect from this band at this stage; huge drums, wall to wall guitars and a rhythm that nails you to the wall. As a song, I think it suffers somewhat because of it's setting but hey, you can't hit them out of the park every time. I wouldn't have thought anybody would lose any sleep over it because even a Smalllife 'album-filler' track is better than most anything else you are likely hear right now. What kind of rock band are they? Think classic; Stones, Zeppelin and you'll be at least in the same ballpark. While you are there having your ears crushed to a pulp by Run Away I really recommend that you check out the tracks I have mentioned because IMHO they convey why I hold them in such high regard, even though you may think Run Away is the best thing you've heard this year.

Highly Recommended Power metal.