Russell HughesNew Year’s Day – Diary of a Creep (Century Media Records)
Genre: Goth Pop
Close your eyes and you’ll be sure it’s Lzzy Hale on the lead vocals. You’ll check the CD cover, double check your phone to make sure the right track is playing. But believe your eyes, ignore your ears. This is New Year’s Day and that is Ash Costello.
Whether those comparisons are welcome is moot. Just like the everlasting brilliance of Ian Drury or the fact that How I Met Your Mother is the most underrated sitcom of all time, it just is.
Whether it’s goth pop or hard rock, New Year’s Day hold nothing back on EP opener Disgust Me. Costello’s voice is perfect and the pounding rhythms Nikki Misery on guitar sends a bolt of energy through the whole song.
Bizarre Love Triangles has it all: a furious intro that fades into a perfect platform for Costello, followed by melancholic riffing that blends into a catchy chorus.
But where the band really lets rip is when they’re at their best. Fucking Hostile is a thoroughbred rock ‘n roll monster with piercing vocals and a rhythm that flows and punches and throbs its way straight into your soul.
Diary of a Creep closes out with three covers in a row. Linkin Park’s Crawling is contrasted with No Doubt’s classic Don’t Speak and Garbage’s Only Happy When It Rains. These three songs might seem to be at opposite ends of the spectrum, but when New Year’s Day do them it all fuses together.
It’s a different way to end an EP but it showcases the variety this band have – while Only Happy When It Rains is transformed into a epic Halestrom-ish slow, building rock ballad.
This is a band with talent and the balls to try and pull off something a bit different, and that has to be applauded.
RUSHONROCK RATED: 7/10 New year new sound?