Inglewood: Rattus Magnanimous EP
Shades of Red Hot Chili Peppers and Everclear on latest CD
Dec 12, 2007
There’s a fine line between cool and pompous. Tennessee indie band Inglewood treads that line and manages to do just enough to stay on the cool side. With their latest EP Rattus Magnanimous, Inglewood has crafted a fine mix of rock cool with hip-hop beats and rap attitude.
Featuring the vocals of main man Colbs and drummer Mike, as well as Seth on the bass, Inglewood isn’t a band that you’d immediately think of when picturing the latest next big thing on the indie scene. They look too much like the kids that got picked last for the college soccer team – yet this suits them and their music, since one thing Inglewood will never be accused of is trying to be popular for popularity’s sake.
Inglewood Notes
- Genre: Pop / indie / rock
- Colbs (vocals / guitar), Mike (vocals / drums), Seth (bass)
- Sounds like: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Everclear
- Home: Tennessee, United States
- Inglewood
Inglewood Offers a Chili Peppers for New Generation
Lead song Heart Strings (Paralyzed) is a lumbering slice of Americana jazz-fused indie a la Chili Peppers and Everclear. Indeed, you can almost picture the latter band’s front man Art Alexakis singing this in an MTV-friendly homemade video. It’s a good start, and one that invites further listening.
The Chili influence continues on Everybody Everywhere, which is just crying out for a sunshine state B-list actress to star in the obligatory happy video. With a hook-laden chorus that gives The Zephyr Song a run for its money, it’s a radio hit-in-waiting.
Sunshine shows that Inglewood has an uncanny knack of staying commercial without being poppy, keeping the right amount of grunge as opposed to going all Avril Lavigne. Dirty guitars mix with a lo-fi arrangement that shoegaze fans will lap up in their droves.
Indie Pop Rock
Movies is quite possibly one of the happiest songs of 2007, with an irresistible chorus full of singalong woo-hoos, and a melody that defies even the lamest of dancers not to get up on the floor. Smiling to a song has never been so much fun.
And this is where Inglewood manages to tread that line between cool and pompous. Songs like the reggae-tinged Miser (I Never Once) are a genuine joy to listen to and offer something different from the all too frequent banality of today’s indie scene. Like The Sun and Fly You Anywhere finish the EP off in a heavier vein, yet they still show that it won't be the songwriting that stops Inglewood from succeeding, if indeed they don’t reach the heights this release deserves.
Inglewood and 2008
If there’s one thing that the band may be guilty of, it’s frontman Colbs’ propensity for attacking other bands through his MySpace blogs. Yes, it may be cliché rock and roll when a singer doesn’t integrate with the crowd in an attempt to appear cool. Yet it’s also a rock and roll cliché to have a go at other bands, as opposed to letting the music do the talking.
The songs on Rattus Magnanimous certainly do the talking for Inglewood. If Colbs can leave the trash-talking to those who feel they need to, and stick to what he and the rest of the band do best, 2008 could be a very good year indeed for Inglewood.
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