Little Red Listen to Little Red by: Ed Butler Thu:05-Jun-08 Label: Hooch Hound Year: 2008 WB rating 70 out of 100

Very few young bands have the chutzpah to INSIST, via their debut album title no less, that their audience listen to their album. But those Melburnians privy to Little Red’s nascence over the past 18 months, gigging relentlessly to the point where they have become the support act du jour in their hometown, have witnessed a young band growing in confidence and enthusiasm with every hyperactive performance. So, assuming that the title, Listen to Little Red is not an astoundingly condescending how-to guide regarding what to do with a CD, that confidence is evident in the assertive moniker the band have adopted.

For the uninitiated, Little Red are a five piece RnB group with a love of the following; three singers, buckets of vocal harmonies, grey suits and skinny ties, squeaky clean guitars and a penchant for singing about girls and soft drink, with just enough garage rock hidden beneath the sheen to ensure a little bit of ramshackle charm. Imagine a band that Ralph and Richie would check out in the café on Happy Days after a night on the tiles, and the sound – and look – of Little Red is apparent. Listening to Listen to Little Red, it is refreshing to hear a band making music so far from the mainstream, yet still be so undeniably hook-laden that a greater form of stardom potentially beckons.

Channeling an entire decade of music is challenging enough when you grew up in the thick of it, but for five likely lads who were born 25 years after Richie Valens died, recreating a stack of Chuck Berry and Sam Cooke records becomes doubly impressive. And this is certainly a faithful recreation. After the crisp recording of last year’s EP, Get Ready!, Little Red have clearly decided to lend their profanity-free pop an extra layer of credibility; the whole album has the distinctive fuzz found on the ancient analogue recordings that are no doubt found in their parents’ attic. When three or four harmonies collide, the gorgeous fuzz of decades of lost recording technology immerses any who care to listen in a deep blue nostalgic sea. And, by and large, it works nicely. In an era where pop is determined to be simultaneously sleazy and over-produced to within an inch of its life, it is truly reassuring to hear pop that is as dirty as it is clean.

Twee lyrics and distressingly catchy hooks aside, the band’s true strength is its three-pronged vocal onslaught. Dom Byrne’s tenor pre-chorus call-and-response to close the astonishingly addictive ’Coca Cola’ elevates the song beyond the top-shelf pop song it already was. It’s undeniably the best piece of pure pop released in recent memory, and a song that will doubtless have the multinational conglomerate positively wetting its pants in anticipation of acquiring the rights to unleash on a thirsty public as soon as the ink is dry.

Quang Dinh, the obligatory heartthrob, carries off some of the slower numbers, most notably ‘Misty, I’, and ‘If You’re Lonely’, which are redolent of – you guessed it – a ‘50s vocal pop group. But it is Tom Hartney’s gravelly baritone that is the unabashed highlight, recalling Eric Burdon in his Animals-era heyday, be it driving belting pop numbers like ‘Coca Cola’, or providing some occasionally much-needed differentiation, such as his almost spoken chorus to ‘Speedo’.

But, of course, it is when all three team up with Adrian Beltrame (the band’s oft-overlooked George Harrison) and let loose their four-part harmonies that Little Red truly excel, such as on ‘Fool’, ‘Stare in Love’, ‘Fight Song’, shit, every damn track on the album. They certainly know how to play to their strengths. Thankfully, also, the harmonies are never quite Wilson brothers-perfect, adding to the slipshod appeal.

At sixteen tracks, however, Listen to Little Red does tend to overstay its welcome, even though the average track length barely nudges two minutes. With such a resolutely consistent sound, 40 minutes of disturbingly upbeat vocal harmonies can begin to grate, particularly as the closer, ‘Autumn Leaves’, is a downtempo soul number, absolutely drenched in the very thing that is getting to the point of saturation already. Also, consistency, while admirable enough, tends to rob some of the weaker tracks of their appeal. Standing alone, songs such as the aforementioned closer would probably hold up nicely, but against a backdrop of 15 similar numbers, that, and much of the album’s second half, has a tendency to fade into the background.

But these criticisms feel unfair in the face of such relentlessly upbeat pop. There is enough of an assortment of hooks and cheerily innocuous lyrics to wash away petty concerns such as song sequence and unnecessary filler. When cracking pieces of magical soul like ‘It’s Alright’, ‘Isabella’ and ‘Jackie Cooper’ (the clearest Beach Boys moment here, complete with saxophone solo) hit the speakers, negativity tends to evaporate, feet start tapping, and heads nodding. While Little Red have, perhaps inevitably, failed to totally capture the playhouse intensity of their live show, they have certainly established that they deserve the attention they are receiving, and, given time and some diligence, have the talent to build on this most respectable start to their career.