Those Among Us - The Way We Love The Way We Live

Hear The Track Here

Another musician with a long Soundclick pedigree, John Brandon first came to my attention back in 2003 when he was one half of the then darlings of the Soundclick scene, Silvertrain. Having gone through considerable ups and downs after Silvertrain ran out of steam (come on, how could I resist it?), John landed on his feet with Those Among Us, ably and convincingly abetted by Lino Gonzalez and Steven 'Mez' Mesropian. The EP's A Chance To Die (August 2010) and Disco Ball (February 2011) are a testament to just how serious this band are about what they do, both getting the highest rating from me.

Aaaahhh, but it is rock, after all.

I have a well known bias in that direction (Ed: or any other if the light is right) but nonetheless can recognise when a dog is barking. The pop rock sound that first attracted me to Silvertrain (who were masters of the short song) has been massively pumped up with steroids, stretched out like a musical limo and produced to a very high standard indeed. Mind you, I don't expect any less after the tracks I have reviewed before. All three musicians make up the very distinctive sound Those Among Us have, so if you've liked previous tracks, this will certainly go down well this coming winter when you could do with the warmth it emits.

As I've often said before, swotting the fly in the ointment of this conversation, I don't particularly like ballads, and rock ballads have a special poison pen I made just for them. About the only thing that is keeping me from also dipping it into this conversatin' (Ed: talking to yourself again) is because it is so well done that picking a personal point doesn't cut it. Certainly if pop rock power ballads blow up your musical skirts, then The Way We Love The Way We Live is going to - well I dread to think... On a more serious note, this is a band who have delivered some of the strongest and most commercial songs I have heard in a long, long while, setting their own bar also has its flipside.

Highly Recommended pop rock nonetheless