INTRODUCING: THE RHYTHM METHOD

One band I’ve been especially excited about over the past few months is The Rhythm Method. They have an irresistible what-you-see-is-what-you-get attitude that achieves their unabashed, spirited charm on-stage. When you see this type of tongue-in-cheek playfulness (that sometimes teeters on the edges of cynicism) live, their ear-worming tunes are all the more appealing.

‘Party Politics’ and ‘Salad Cream’ were some of the most enjoyable tracks I’ve witnessed live in a while when I last saw them at the Old Blue Last for So Young’s festival weekend. I found myself genuinely laughing out loud at frontman, Joey’s pun-filled lyrics – his dead pan delivery is crucial when he cracks out quips like, ‘Look! Frankie’s back from Hollywood’. This is taken from the band’s piping pub rock tune, ‘Local, Girl’.

The main influence that comes to mind when you first hear the boys is definitely The Streets; Mike Skinner has even produced one of their singles. But one thing these boys do better than the legendary Skinner, if I dare say it, is that they give it more of a funked up groove, and Rowan’s heartfelt vocals make The Rhythm Method a different breed in that there’s more emotion poured in the glass for us all to get a taste of, and it’s a very bittersweet one at times. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the stark realism looming in the track, ‘Home Sweet Home’. Rowan sings in the nostalgic chorus, ‘With every closing bar, there’s hollows in my heart, London’, and so the song echoes out as an ode (or an elegy?) to the Big City. Joey’s lyrics are sometimes so poignant that you start to wonder whether London will ever be as authentic as it once was, what with gentrification hoovering up the places that once spurted out subculture like it was glory juice.

But as Joey says in the same song, ‘The road is long, but the night is longer’, and The Rhythm Method managed to keep a big smile on my face throughout the night, and continue to do so as I’m writing this, with ‘Local, Girl’ blasting out my laptop. This band brandish something that is novelty at the moment – real honesty. They are unafraid to dish out raw, close to the bone lyrics and that’s what makes their songs cutting edge.

Listen to: ‘Local, Girl’ here.

Words by Alicia Carpenter

First published on Rank Zine - http://www.rankzine.co.uk/review-the-rhythm-method/