The Rascals - Rascalize

THE RASCALS
Rascalize
You may know The Rascals’ frontman Miles Kane better for recently teaming up with Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner to form The Last Shadow Puppets. Following the acclaim their musical outing has received, it is to much interest that Kane and two other ex-members of now-defunct The Little Flames release The Rascals’ debut album.

Kane certainly has an interesting, textured vocal and a fine way with words. This is best illustrated by Fear Invicted Into The Perfect Stranger, but, despite the obvious talent on display here, the most notable aspect of Rascalize is just how familiar it all sounds. Like The Coral, there is an intriguing mixture of pop melodies and dark weirdness here and, fittingly, swaggering social yarns like Does Your Husband Know That You’re On The Run? are similar to Arctic Monkeys. On top of these reference points, I’d Be Lying To You perhaps trespasses into The Zutons’ territory.

There is certainly an impressive energy about this album, and it gives a good sense of the band’s Northern English roots, but, even with its atmospheric, dark edges and interesting structures, it never reaches the heights that one senses it ought to. At no stage does anything about Rascalize really stand out, and it certainly doesn’t come close to matching Arctic Monkeys, who surely set the benchmark for bands like this. Therefore, we are left feeling slightly disappointed, making it hard to see The Rascals causing as much excitement in the music world as The Last Shadow Puppets. And when your frontman’s side-project is superior to his full-time band, you know you’re in trouble.