This is what we've come to expect from Clean Cut Kid - and as great as that is they need to branch out and try something slightly different in order to give them the longevity they deserve.
Bombarding us with new release after new release, ‘Make Believe’ comes shortly after the Clean Cut Kid’s We Used To Be In Love EP and continues to follow in the steps of its predecessors. The trademark vocals of Mike and Evelyn Halls once again appear in a perfect harmony, this time enhanced by quieter female vocals providing echoey tones to the voices, and are assigned a greater importance. The instrumentation comes less to the forefront than in past releases, although once again retaining a stunning mix of electric guitar, drums, and synths.
Ever reluctant to apply social or political motives to their songs, its lyrics cast a similar tone to ‘We Used To Be In Love‘ and ‘Vitamin C’ by being another stereotypical heartbreak song. It would be nice to see them follow the likes of Everything Everything and, more recently, Two Door Cinema Club in forming a song that casts some kind of sharpened message or commentary, as the lyrics ‘Make Believe’ does have – “‘Cause I’m finding it hard to believe / That it’s the last time I will ever see you,” for example – do nothing but harm what could have been a stunning continuation of what we’ve learnt to expect from Liverpool’s latest alternative sensations.
‘Make Believe’ is out now via Polydor
