Review - This Is My Ship

CD Info Box
Artist: Dartz!
Album: This Is My Ship
Label: Xtra Mile Recordings

Some bands want you to stop and think, some bands was the music to wash over you, some bands want to piss off as many people as possible. Some bands don't want to piss off as many people as possible but somehow manage to do it anyway.

Dartz! want you to dance. Want you to sing. They also want to put the band name and album name on different spines of the CD case which will screw up my CD rack forever if their second album does the same, but that's a personal gripe.

Its true, as the NME said, that Dartz! have one song. That song is in my opinion the sound of Polysics on a mild sedative. Given that Now Is The Time! was w00tworld's Album Of The Year 2006 that's not a bad thing. The music is the tried and tested (and in Alkaline Trio, perfected) guitar/bass/drums combo that perfectly suits a 3-piece band and it takes a lot to get as much out of it as this lot have. The shrieking voice of William Anderson and perfect backing of Phillip Maughan provide an excellent launch pad to chuck out some of the often ridiculous lyrics that sound good but don't quite make sense. A perfect example being this;

"You have 3 sides but you're not a triangle, you have 3 sides and you are a square." (Prego Triangolos)

Umm, yeah. Despite these odd mind benders this is an album that could run an indie disco alone and any track will kick off the dancefloor at a good house party. I once said the sign of a good band was punctuation in its name, be it exclaimation marks (every party band ever), full stops (Bloc Party. is what its supposed to be) or several (Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly.). With the possible exception of Panic! At The Disco, I still think this theory holds up.

In A Line
When every other band is trying concepts and odd sounds, its nice to just hear a good tuneful thrash.

Eight (8)