I Was a Cub Scout - I Want You to Know…
Artist:I Was a Cub Scout
Album:I Want You to Know That There is Always Hope
Label:Abeano Music
Release date: 18/02/2008
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Following the recent spate of indie/electronic crossovers, I Was a Cub Scout fuse hauntingly nostalgic synths with a stamping drumbeat as a foundation for soaring vocals to create a decidedly unique sound. The duo’s music style has been dubbed everything from ‘emo-tronica’ to ‘melancholic computer rock’, but their debut album simply offers melodic four minute pop tunes. I Was a Cub Scout set out to portray a genuinely hopeful view of teenage life, without the irony adopted by bands like the Arctic Monkeys.
Teenagers writing songs about failed romances isn’t exactly a revolution in lyricism but you can’t help indulge in singer Tom Marriott’s wistful reminiscence. The poeticism of lines like ‘our whispers are wild, we are not just lovers’ reveals a maturity in the band’s lyrics that is so often missing in those of their contemporaries. Although recorded in only a month, every track is perfection: from the cascading synth which sonically reflects the name of the track ‘Echoes’ to the epic bells which herald the arrival of ‘A Step to Far Behind’, the final track of the album. On first listen, the album’s dreamy synth seems disappointingly nondescript, but after hearing it a few times the album becomes truly captivating. I Was a Cub Scout offer definite hope that we won’t simply continue to descend into a deafening miasma of generic indie.
