SIX months has passed since Birmingham-based quartet Peace first appeared on the British music scene. Since going public with the very impressive four track EP Delicious, two of the tracks Bloodshake and California Daze have both featured in NME’s Top 50 Tracks of 2012.

Peace’s tracks are produced by Jim Abiss who has previously worked with chart-heavy-weights The Arctic Monkeys and Adele. Working his magic with the opener Higher Than The Sun, Abiss has created a fantastic sound. With its solid bass guitar line and eerie sound building up to a pounding chorus- it’s perfectly placed as an attention grabbing opening track.

Follow Baby has a strong 90’s feel to it, with its calm sounding verses that transcend into a very angelic chorus. This is an enjoyable song that carries itself well from start to finish.

Next track Lovesick is a proper feel-good pop song; it’s short, catchy and straight to the point.  The tune features sugary lyrics “I wanna get lovesick, I wanna get lovesick with you.” With such a flowery core, it’s only a matter of time before Lovesick is played over and over again by indie DJ’s nationwide.

Float Forever dramatically slows the album right down, effectively allowing you to appreciate the lyrical effort from Harry Koisser. The sheer emotion in his voice as he sings is loveable and a true charm of the band, but more importantly it is probably the first time in the album that the band show their not one trick ponies.

Although all the tracks have been so far impressive, the work on the EP is a complete change in writing style for the band, this has really pushed Peace into a new direction.

Wraith is the first single off the EP reaching number 75 in the UK chart. Thanks to social media and illegal downloads it’s widely known that band success can be measured in fantastic new ways and the weight that the charts carry for indie bands is often weak. Despite the low-rating in the charts, track Wraith is worth its weight in gold with its funk sound. The guitar and drums create a sound that desires dancing; a wonderful 90’s piano closes the song commanding attention. It’s a great track for the dance floor.

Delicious has a strong Nirvana feel to the verse- cranking up the noise and resembling their big hit Smells like Teen Spirit with its darker approach of playing.  It quickly changes back to a chorus which is loud with a lot of reverb; this sound seems to be a strong theme with the EP.

Waste of Paint has another strong 90’s influence shining through, but this time it is down to the very baggy sound with a Blur- Aint No Other Way vibe surrounding it from the go. Even vocally Koisser is starting to sound like Tim Burgees. With the 1990’s theme prominent throughout the EP, this track shows the band as great musicians.

Next up is Toxic where, again mainstream influences are present this time from The Manic Street Preachers. For the first time in the album this track has a raw feel to it which definitely works for the band. The distorted guitar riff leads the chorus, with the lyrics “All I wanna do is forget you” blasting over the top of it like an old school indie rock song.

The album closes with Sugarstone and California Daze–  the latter previously landing on the Delicious EP. Fans of the band will already know this to be a beautiful track with a sing-a-long lyrical performance from Koisser. It was perfect on the Delicious EP and clearly the band and producer felt the same way- so it goes onto the album unchanged.

The Koisser brothers, Dominic Boyce and Douglas Castle have come a long way since starting the Peace journey. But with hype usually comes apprehension from music fans. This album my not be as good as it’s being branding “the saviour of guitar music” but it is a very good attempt. Its well worth the praise it is receiving from the media and fans.

For Peace, it will be the follow-up they produce after this very impressive debut album that will in time tell if this band can stand the test of time. After all it’s the critics that can make or break guitar heroes.

Words: Nadine Walker