Chapel Club: Palace - review

Great things are expected of Chapel Club, and it's easy to hear why. The epic Surfacing adapts the lyrics to 1930s standard Dream a Little Dream of Me (a 60s hit for the Mamas and the Papas) within walls of post-punk guitar. Another single, All the Eastern Girls, showcases singer Lewis Bowman's eerie ability to sound exactly like Ian McCulloch of Echo & the Bunnymen. Helpfully, the song's soaring chorus is comparable to the majestic Bunnies in their 80s prime. The problem is that these two terrific anthems overshadow the rest of their debut, which occasionally chugs into the identikit doom rock that has been fashionable in recent years. Still, Bowman's razorblades-in-honey vocal is impossible to tire of, and the band's My Bloody Valentine guitars shimmer and shudder in all the right places. The near-ballad Fine Light is lovely, and O Maybe I is a haunting song of personal disintegration. Flawed, certainly, but there is potential here.