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The Soft Parade - Cardiff Barfly
Alex White is understandably bored shitless of people rattling on about how young he and his band are. And it's true. The Soft Parade's tender age has little or no bearing on this largely excellant half-hour introduction to their charms. But observe that tentative arrogance before they've even played a song, the way Alex distractedly flicks his lit cigarette in the direction of the audience - how lame would a 35-year-old look doing that? Exactly.
Extraordinary opener "Aerial Roots" - sparse, tension-building guitar, charging into a ragged appropriation of good-period Oasis - justifies this standoffish posture fully. It also marks out The Soft Parade - Brighton-based songwriting duo of Alex and younger brother Tom, beefed up to a four-piece for live purposes - as one of the most bankable British hopes of 2001.
The only minor failings come when Alex is left to sing almost unaccompanied; it sounds awkward, and you wait for the thrilling electric guitars to kick back in. The ones propelling the West Coast perfection of "Something's Got To Give", and most notably "Silent To The Dark" - improbably, Teenage Fanclub gone Krautrock. At the finish, guitars hit the floorn and the band stride off.
"The sound of youth" doesn't do it justice.
Written By Noel Gardner
Source: NME
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