Ladyhawk Shots by: Melanie Lewis Wed:09-Apr-08 Label: Jagjaguwar Year: 2008 WB rating 32 out of 100

Shots, the latest effort from Ladyhawk, is a nine track album that could be an EP. If you got four blokes (and a spiritual advisor) into a shitty old house and let them smash a heap of beers down, jam and press the red button on the boom box, this might be what you end up with. It’s clear that while there are sections where they have actually come up with some cool stuff, and while I hate a band to overproduce to the point of identity crisis, there are some serious aesthetic issues that plague Shots. It’s not that the songs are bad, or that they can’t play their instruments - it just sounds like shit.

The opener, ‘I Don’t Always Know What You’re Saying’, starts with 70s grunge promise, forgets its pledge during the first verse and finds itself again by the chorus. While Duffy Driediger’s vocals are appealing and the guitar catchy, they sound like a group who needs to get together a bit more regularly. There’s a looseness that sounds more rough than delightfully jangly. Where the band break away from this trend, they sound derivative, the solid pop tune in ‘Fear’ is a near rip-off of The Beatles’ ‘Got To Get You Into My Life’ but it sounds like the first time the band are on the same musical page.

From listening to Shots there’s little doubt that Ladyhawk are as accomplished as a bunch of drunk mates recording for a laugh on the weekend.