Album Review: Okay You Win – End of Days
Reviewed by Matthew Williams
One of the many highlights of this year’s Desertfest London was being packed into The Black Heart from 4pm on Saturday afternoon, to witness the performance of Londoners Okay You Win. For a band who only formed three years previously, they have come a long way guided by enthusiastic support from the wonderful Psychlona.
Their musical style draws heavily upon the 90’s grunge and alternative rock scene, and the quartet fuse it with desert rock and class British metal, to deliver an album of eight songs that is extremely impressive and catchy as hell. Straight away, with opening track “Smoke” there’s an energy and swagger to the guitar from Ryan O’Hare before the clean vocals of the infectious David Kirk pierce through. They slow it down midway to allow the rhythm to get inside your mind and then hit you a huge swathe of guitars and bass.
As the band comment “we really think we’ve captured all of that raw energy and feeling from our first years out on the road” and that’s evident as listening to the songs took me back to that bouncing venue in Camden. “Beat Me Down” sees drummer Antonio Peci and bassist Rodrigo Barradas set a hypnotic rhythm before we get Kirk’s smooth vocals leading you astray. The riffs are on point from O’Hare, and at just over eight minutes long, it’s a song you’ll never tire of listening to, especially the slow, menacing section about two thirds through.
I remember them playing “The Greatest Lie” and “This Damned Place” back-to-back at Desertfest, and it offers a different perspective on their musicianship. On the former it has a more psychedelic edge with a smoother, yet familiar crushing guitar sound added by Kirk’s soaring vocals. On the latter, there’s a distinctive stoner rock foundation to the composition, with the bass coming to the fore as it comes alive with that raw energy they are now famed for in a live setting.
This album has been two years in the making, as the band have taken their time to test these songs out on the road, and throughout “End of Days” you can sense that big rock exuberance in the music. One advantage they have, is that Kirk’s vocal range is vast and they use it purposefully to give great variety and presence across the album. He’s very animated on stage, and this comes through on record, but the musicianship is also infectious and as a band they work extremely well together.
“Red Flag” is a shorter song, with a punky undertone, that exudes confidence and will have you bouncing around the room in no time to the unbelievably catchy riff. Once more the guitar and bass sounds are both punchy and tenacious but there’s time for a further twist with a slower ending that builds into a noisy finish. It leads into the slow and low “Ten Your Trip”, as elements of melancholy and feistiness clash across the soundscape. The tone of the guitar stands out again, driving the song to great heights with another decent solo thrown in for good measure.
The slower ending paves the way for the final track of their debut album, “Own It” as the drums lead the procession. Kirk displays more of the vocal diversity but what impresses me most is that you can clearly hear each bass note, each snare being hit, each guitar string being plucked and that what’s makes this song and this album one of my favourites of the year so far.
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