Can't Stop The Daggers - Moving Target

Hear The Track Here

When this ended up next in the queue from Mondays Not Home, it was one of those excellent twists that make reviewing truly fun. Both are accurately billed as Indie and shows that - whatever your location - there is a willingness to try that much harder to write classy, catchy proto-pop songs. It's on the strength of their songs that Can't Stop The Daggers have become a permanent fixture on my hard drive and regular playlists and I - for one - can't wait to hear the soon to be completed album which I have been hearing in rough mix form what seems like forever. Moving Target is also a bit rough around the edges and the song comments tell a familiar tale 'This came from the ether of collective band playing, one of those songs that happens as you're trying to finish a record that forces to stop and record it.'

Boy, do I know that one.

The band (Jon Partelow, Chris Chattom, Lionel Luchessi and Emily Shalick) will probably come back and tell me now that this is in fact a final mix, but to my ears this sounds like a rough mix. There again a Can't Stop The Daggers rough mix is better than some bands finished tracks and that's a statement I am proud to stand by. Much more to the point, whatever the state of the recording (and they always keep a certain high standard), the main thing that has always appealed to me is the songs. The growing collection of Must Have's this band has had from me is only getter higher with each successive track, primarily because of the accessibility and charm of the songs.

Moving Target carries endless echoes of rock past, from the John Lennon feel of the vocals to the sub-Velvet Underground weirdnesses this track features in its make up. Leaping to my usual gargantuan conclusions, I think this is one of the first real band tracks I have heard and the weight was worth it. As good as the song is, without that excellently tight push from all the instrumentalists, wouldn't have worked half so well. Again, I find myself unwilling to come to any real conclusion about the track because I know it will probably change between here and the album but as a purely pleasurable listening experience it doesn't get much better than this.

Highly Recommended Indie.