Reviews

Anteros: The Next Blossoms?

May 11, 2017 63848 views No Comments

A couple of years ago a young band from Stockport was playing to small crowds up and down the country. All my senses told me instantly that they had the potential to break on through to the other side (small time indie side to mainstream side I mean). Well they did have some very Doorsy sounding songs in their armoury in those early days. They had nothing but a handful of singles to listen to, followed by the Blown Rose EP, and some quirky home-made videos online. What I discovered back then, was that they came as a complete package: they certainly looked the part, photogenic to the core; they were as good live as recorded, and as ear-catching blasting out in your headphones as performing to an enthusiastic audience. With lots of bands you can get one, but not the other. When you discover the morphing of both, you have struck gold. They are genuine, down-to-earth guys who you could (more difficult these days!) talk to after gigs and have a banter with. As they began to gain followers and release more singles, and a second EP, you would hear their songs popping up all over the place, in the aisles of Home Bargains, in the Rovers’ Return, in the Theatre of Dreams and in their beloved Etihad. Blossoms are the noisy neighbours Ferguson was talking about! Well do you know what? I have a prediction, or most probably an observation: I believe that Anteros have that same winning combination too. The icing on the cake is this: they also have Blossoms DNA, a bit of Stockport too, a connection in guitarist, Jackson Couzens, former tech with the Stockport band, who has jokingly been called the love child of Tom Ogden and Myles Kellock, due to his long, blonde locks and moody demeanour.

Let’s go on…Guess what I heard in Costa last month? I nearly choked on my large, extra hot, full fat, vanilla latte when Fade to Grey came over the speakers. I just refrained myself from jumping up and shouting, “Hey listen y’all! You need to stop drinking and talking and listen to this.” That’s not all: guess who has been on the Old Trafford match day playlist? And on Soccer FM too. Just like Blossoms.

Why is that? Because they write deliciously infectious melodies, with singalong hooks and stir-it-up beats that frame real life lyrics, with which you can identify. What shall I compare thee too, O Anteros? How about taking a cooking pot and throwing in some Blondie, a liberal dose of Chrissie Hynde, a dash of Fleetwood Mac, some 60’s pop, some 70’s American glampunk, some 80’s new wave, some female fronted Britpop and a whole load of Anterossysassyness. Call me biased but it’s pretty hard to listen to an Anteros song and not want to hear it again straightaway. That’s the sign of good songwriters, isn’t it? There is something about each song that entices you, be it a bass (The Beat), guitar or keys riff or a repeated refrain that you can’t but help singing or humming along to (Anteros). It might be a lyric, with which you immediately identify: “four white walls, I’m stuck between the four white walls, these four white walls, have started spinning” Or it may be hearing Laura, with her sweet, upbeat, driving rock, which is as perfect as perfect can be for the songs they create, the same way that Stevie Nicks or Blondie are.

Each song is a 3+ minute audio-aesthetic work of art that touches the heart of your musical emotions. You can be stuck inside your own four white walls and find escape into this colourful, gritty, poprock world where the jagged edges of any negativity are sandpapered away to leave a smooth, feelgood soul onto which you can paint something positive. Even the songs, with lyrics of loss and heartache somehow sound hopeful and optimistic. Trials and tribulations? Yes, but everything will be ok in the end.

I used to advise people to go and see Blossoms in small venues before you had to pay ridiculously inflated prices to stand in an arena and see five dots on a faraway stage. I now say the same for Anteros. They will soon embark on their own tour in smaller venues across the UK. See them now, before they sell out in minutes and you have to go to a ticket re-sale site to buy tickets. I was recently at the Festevol/Club Evol gig at the Invisible Wind Factory in Liverpool with three people who had never seen them before. From the first euphoric notes of Cherry Drop to the rouse-a-long outro of Anteros, they were hooked as Laura (vocals), Josh (bass), Jackson (guitar) and Harry(drums) acted, preened and thrashed out the songs whilst a bevvy of ecstatic girls danced wildly in front of the stage. It was a perfect venue: low stage, outside in the fresh air, with the smell of scouse wafting over from the double decker food bus, no more than a metre between band and audience, who reverberated as one. It was pure Anteros (“requited love”) Watching them grin from ear to ear, I knew that three new fans had been born. They will be there at the next Liverpool gig for sure.

So will Anteros be the next Blossoms? They won’t replace them. Blossoms have already cemented their place in the world of poprock. They are both different of course, but both share those qualities I’ve described earlier. It’s all about the songs, the musicianship, the likeability, the down-to-earth-ness, the dynamic, live performances, the photogenic nature of the band as a whole. For a complete amateur photographer like me, Anteros create some amazing angles together on stage, that make for great pictures. It is no coincidence that hoardes of photographers flooded the photopit for their performance at Flying Vinyl Festival in London (April 2017) I really and honestly and truly believe it most unlikely that Anteros will not take off meteorically in the same way as that cheeky band that put Stockport on the map. The songs are radio-ready, stadium-ready, album-ready, Costa-ready, Home Bargains- ready, Old Trafford-ready gems. Most importantly, the band will keep, and add to, their rapidly growing fan base, both on social media and in person, because they have time for them, so much so that I was able to talk to Josh and Jackson for ages about music and football and lots of other stuff. Do it. Listen to these songs on here. Buy tickets. See them now! The Beat goes on…and on…and on…and will go on…and on…and on…