Album Review: The Xcerts – Hold On To Your Heart

Brighton trio The Xcerts return with their brand new full-length release ‘Hold On To your Heart’. Surprisingly the albums opening offer is the emo-piano ballad ‘The Dark’. Next up is the Jimmy Eat World sounding ‘Daydream’ and although it’s a punchy enough tune it’s not an uppercut knock-out but more of a testing jab. ‘Feels Like Falling In Love’ follows a similar slipstream of heartbreak, honour and faux male emotion all wrapped up in a KFC advert. ‘First Kiss Feeling’ is the simply wet to the touch, it’s a turgid tale of a  journey from adolescence into adulthood. Teenage girls may fall head over heels for it but it leaves me cold.

Here’s the rub the songs are good enough but they need some balls, like proper Rock ’N’ Roll swingers rather than this half in half out dressing like Punk singing like a boy/pop band bollocks. If you want to be Take That then go be TT, but if you want to be a real band then get out and attack the music with no safety net.

‘Crazy’ starts with some promise and then quickly drowns in its own middle of the road assimilation and that’ll do it for me.