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Scouting For Girls are an identifiably British band. Their vocal style and lyrical references to British culture – such as the song ‘Michaela Strachan’ on their self-titled first album – inject life into Britain’s indie pop scene. Now they have to negotiate the always tricky second album, and while there are a few moments of an alternative sound creeping through, they mostly play it safe.
Everybody Wants To Be On TV wisely opens with their UK number one single ‘This Ain’t A Love Song’. This eases the listener in gently with familiar melodies and Scouting For Girls’ distinctive style. So it is a slight shock when the second track begins and you think that your iTunes is on shuffle and has skipped to that awful dance album you bought on a whim. It’s all synthesised vocals quoting Snow White. Thankfully the brass instruments eventually arrive, but the synthesiser comes back at frequent intervals during the rest of the song.
The fourth track on the album - ‘Famous’ – takes up the social satire of the album’s title. Like Good Charlotte in ‘Lifestyles of the Rich and the Famous’, Scouting For Girls don’t want to be famous, they’re just ordinary people who can’t understand the whole ‘fame thing’. Trouble is that they are famous, so their social commentary leaves one slightly cold. ‘Posh Girls’, on the other hand, enjoys more success in this area, with cutting lines such as, ‘Posh girls have good manners, but they go like the clappers, ‘cause they never got to hang around with boys at school’.
While the album is overall an enjoyable listen, its trouble is that several songs immediately remind you of other tracks from different bands. ‘This Ain’t A Love Song’ initially sounds like a Keane song, the ‘mono’ effect in ‘On the Radio’ is taken from ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’, the opening bars of ‘1 + 1’ sound suspiciously like Fall Out Boy’s ‘Dance Dance’. Meanwhile, the beginning of ‘Blue As Your Eyes’ sounds like it belongs in a mobile phone advert, or on a Coldplay album. That’s not to say that Scouting For Girls’ own style doesn’t come through, but they have to work hard throughout each song to prove your first impression wrong.
Having said that, Everybody Wants To Be On TV shouldn’t leave you with a bad taste in your mouth, especially as the final song, ‘Take A Chance On Us’, is the perfect end-of-album track, complete with the ‘fade to silent’ conclusion. Scouting For Girls haven’t come a cropper with their second studio release, but hopefully they’ll try something a bit different with their third.
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