First impressions are tough and you only get one. After listening to ‘Avalon’ – the debut album from Welsh rockers The Decoy – a fair few few times, I’m still struggling to pin down just what exactly these guys are all about. Jumping between mammoth Incubus style choruses and Biffy-esque riffs with gleeful abandon, The Decoy are a band with massive potential, but lack focus on this first offering.
Musically, The Decoy have a penchant for tight, technical and rhythmically heavy riffs. Most of the album contains songs that flow and groove naturally, and The Decoy are extremely proficient at their instruments, with ‘Habit’ and ‘Kids’ being musical highlights of the album, combining jaggy riffs and tight, syncopated rhythms with crashing choruses.
Having said that, ‘Avalon’ gets off to a really jaggy start with the mish mash that is ‘Black Mountain Radio,’ an homage to Fallout New Vegas’ kaleidoscopic adventure. Opening an album with a three minute long song that’s got around eight distinct parts, none of which really flow into each other, is an ambitious ploy, and The Decoy struggle in realising their ambition, becoming a claustrophobic mish-mash of ideas rather than a well crafted song.
It’s the band’s unfocused ambition, no matter how admirable, that ultimately leads to the albums’ weaknesses becoming apparent. The lyrics and subject matters in these songs are probably The Decoy’s biggest stumbling point. They’re unfocused, scatter-shot and occasionally condescendingly nasty. The Decoy try to mimic Reuben’s playfulness through pop-culture references, like on the Bioshock themed ‘Elizabeth’ or the mentions of YouTube and Adventure Time on the soaring ballad ‘Kids’, a tight and focused downtempo composition that allows for the more mellow and mature side of the band to shine through.
But when Barber sings “it makes me fucking angry to know you breathe my air” on ‘Breathe’, The Decoy come across as unlikeable. It makes it hard to sympathise with The Decoy when they ask you to take them seriously, why the acoustic plea for sympathy that is ‘A Meze’ doesn’t really work as Barker’s social anxiety is undercut by the following track ‘Lions’ declaration that “I’m surrounded by cunts”. Well dude, maybe if you stopped calling everyone around you cunts, you might not feel so bad?
The Decoy shoot themselves in the foot with the occasional lyrics that appear condescending in a punk scene that is becoming more optimistic and inclusive. Frustrating because they have the makings of a really great band; they just need a focus that allows their musical proficiency to shine through.
MATTHEW WILSON