This week, Alex Lee Thomson is approving some artists he checked out at last month’s SXSW showcase festival in Austin.
If hard work breeds success then Enjoyable Listens are onto something. This band seemed to be everywhere at SXSW last month, and that’s no mean feat.
They certainly don’t disappoint when it comes to their name – just one of their self aware tactics to dazzle you with showmanship and suck you into their odd world. Alex Cameron knows this style well, characterised by a vaudevillian and almost pantomime exterior, a kind of “go on – come take a look what’s happening over here” approach.
Their songs pack melody and punch. They’re glimpses of faded British glamour offered up by a suited pop prince, not too dissimilar from Jarvis Cocker.
Their sound blends baritone vocals and breezy melodies with clear influences from the 80s, yet they manage to put their own elegant stamp on things. Among the yelps and thrash of Austin’s dive bars, this is an altogether more mature and inviting scene.
Now signed to Fierce Panda, and with their 2022 album ‘The Enjoyable Listen’ (well, why wouldn’t you?) to draw from, there’s enough meat to get excited about here.
But if you just want a good time in the presence of an old soul leaping across table tops, mic in hand as though the best man at a wedding is about to explode into ‘Thunder Road,’ then you’re very well catered for too.
Listen to Enjoyable Listens’ latest single ‘That’s Where The Blood Is’ here:
