Toy Horses // Toy Horses

Father and son bands are a select and dying breed. Producing incredibly average music it seems that their relationship is their only quality, which makes Toy Horses unique. There is no denying they can produce a good song with smooth harmonies and evocative lyrics but they sound undoubtedly like a less enthusiastic Scouting for Girls. Though this easy listening floats by you with no hook, they are able to supply delicate raw recordings with a sparse amount of production and instruments as demonstrating their sentiment within the record. But it’s with songs such as ‘Loyal To The Cause’ and ‘ Love At An Arm’s Length’ you realise the potential and it demonstrates blistered vocals which create a much needed contrast for despite carefully crafted guitar this acoustic restrains the emotion. When layering the score with orchestral instruments it adds much more depth proving they don’t need the distracting “lalalala’s” over the last bars of each song. Settling the album with their best song ‘Interrupt’ it shows they can use more than just a guitar as their enticing sounds are reminiscent from the likes of Elbow, yet still have not escaped the obvious and predictable lyrics. But maybe auto tuning and the excruciating whine of modern day R’n’B stars is just what they need.  In which case writing for the likes of Sean Kingston and Jason Derulo (yes, really) can finally inject some life into their songs.