The voice bleeds like David Gray, but the band sound much more, gloriously, messy that anything ‘White Ladders’ could dish up – Little Plato are a Manchester band and ‘Spirals’ is their third release.
The title track is a grungy waltz shot through with melancholy vocals, and filled out with scratching and stabbing guitar riffs. It’s followed by ‘Crystal Unclear’ which sounds similar, but more mellow and acoustic, that is, until the chorus kicks in, and their simple indie sound is once again caked in reverb, electric guitar explosions and nice, loose drum fills so that it sounds like Coldplay falling down a stair well.
It’s an emotive start to the EP and the second two tracks seem a touch muted in comparison, but still they manage to carry the Little Plato flame along nicely.
All four songs are in 3/4 time – I don’t know if they ever allow those guitars to freak out in 4/4, it might stretch the range of their songbook a bit – but then, who am I to say? More power to them, these four waltzes rock.