Delays
Delays are a heady concoction of angelic harmonies, beat-group hauteur and groove-based hedonism, they belong to British pop’s most regal bloodline: (early) Floyd, The Smiths, The Stone Roses.
Having signed to Rough Trade in 2004, they released their debut album ‘Faded Seaside Glamour’ the same year. A riot of page-boy haircuts, nifty riffs and celestial harmonies, it boasted top Twenty hits ‘Long Time Coming’ and ‘Nearer Than Heaven’ and prompted the Guardian to describe them as “the first guitar band in a decade to lay claim to the melodic guitar pop throne invented by The Byrds and the Hollies.”
Follow up ‘You See Colours’ (2006) saw their psych-pop blueprint delivered with added BPM. A brooding mix of “Voulez Vous’ and ‘The La’s’, it spawned alpha-pop hits ‘Valentine’ (NME Track Of The Week) and ‘Hideaway’ and brought both an army of new admirers and a mutually agreed split from Rough Trade.
Now signed to Fiction Records, the band released ‘Everything’s The Rush’, in May 2008. Recorded over twenty days in Spain with producer Youth (Primal Scream/Verve/Paul McCartney), it is the sound of Delays striding confidently into the big league. The tunes are brighter, the choruses are bigger, the need for emotional rescue greater than ever. If the urgency can be put down to a desire to make up for lost time, the super-charged guitar sounds and soaring synths owe something to psycho-geography.
The tunes may be the musical equivalent of a huge gulp of alpine air, but listen closer and the lyrics reveal a darker aftertaste.
“One third of the album relates to the detritus of us getting out of Rough Trade and our private situations, and the other two thirds are about the joy of discovering new things and the beauty of making music again” explains Greg.
With Aaron providing vocals and an acerbic lyrical wit on four tracks (not least on idlers anthem ‘One More Lie-In’), it’s the sound of a band scaling new peaks, tackling their personal demons along the way.
The band have just played the O2 Wireless Festival in London and are due to perform at the following festivals this summer: Oxegen in Ireland, T in The Park in Scotland, Ben and Jerry’s Festival in Clapham London and the V Festival.
‘Right now in British rock the Delays are the ultimate high’ David Fricke - Rolling Stone