Various Cruelties

Plan B stating that he’s conquered soul was a bit presumptuous. In fact, it was a totally outrageous and ill-informed statement that holds little authenticity. The audacity of people these days is blood-boiling…

See, every once in a while an act like Plan B will hit the mainstream by shifting their original, rooted sound to a more polished, or possibly, totally altered outlook. These mainstream altering shifts then greet the public eye like a beacon of originality, and in turn, the audiences for whom this is crafted will leave their house, go to Tesco and buy their annual CD. This happens all over and it’s responsible for chart-dominating success, because think how many people fall into this category. Your parents maybe? Your sister? Your friends? – all of them.

Grandiose claims such as the one made by Plan B don’t affect the once-a-year CD shoppers though. Declarations and statements which burry themselves in the root-canal of music hold little stable ground with these music grazers, the deriding of soul means nothing, the alteration of sound is irrespective – but why should they care? It’s normal not to give a hoot, the oddities come from actually caring too much…

I was curious though, if Plan B has mastered soul and is apparently moving on to Reggae, where does that leave ‘Cold As You’ by Various Cruelties? Just teetering of the peripheral of Plan B’s conquered scene? Or is it a challenge? A fist-clenched challenge to the grime-turned-pop wordsmith? Nah, it’s more of an unintentional retort that disproves Plan B’s muggy, narcissistic presumption via oceans of fulfilling, Technicolor fore-frontal pop.

Various Cruelties stand firm, however, because the full-bodied brass and wavering melodious tones of Motown only hint towards their pop sensibilities. The London band formed in 2010 and have since supported Mumford and Sons, The Villagers and The Vaccines. An impressive roster of shows so far – and although personally I feel that means fuck all in the grand scheme of things, its something people like to write, so like the generic blog-mug I am, I’ve followed suit…

Various Cruelties - Cold As You by ListenBeforeYouBuy

The recently released ‘If It Wasn’t For You’ received some critical acclaim with its trembling surf guitar, undulating with mood and possession, but I feel the real extent of their sumptuous croons comes during ‘Chemicals’. Although extremely poppy and landing comfortably into the Brit-folk scene that emerged in the past couple of years, Various Cruelties lead the pack with throaty pouts and a sense of unaffected ease and comfort. At points it appears so perfectly delivered that you think you shouldn’t like it, but dismiss that moronic idea right out the window into on-coming traffic.

Various Cruelties - Chemicals by rockfeedback

There are many many positives that come from striving towards the polished product. They sound remarkably accomplished considering it’s still early for them, but most of all, the band wont have to alter any sound or direction to ‘conquer’ any form of popularity because they’re pretty much impeccable as they are.