This is a review of "Untitled" recorded by Clone. The review was written by Dave Sugden in 2001.

Clone, dressed in their shades, have an uneasy obsession with writing songs about the stars and planets. Perhaps this is an indication of their intended musical deliverance; their image, their tape cover and the track titles made me thing that they were going to be some sort of freak band playing surf guitar.

How wrong was I?

You can split this tape into two; the first song "Comet" is remarkably good, so much in fact that it's probably the best song within its genre that I've received to date. The other three songs are noticeably average.

Within the range of music styles on the demo, it is worth noting that nothing has any sort of depth to it. Using "Comet" as an example, this works in their favour. A mix of Green Day, circa Basket Case, punk-pop opens up the song. Vocally similar too, especially in the verses. Choruses are completely different, much more Uk-indie in sound and in the way it is delivered. A decent memorable chorus is all I ask for, one that shows good vocals, and this is perfect.

If you like your music to be fun, frenetic, catchy but equally very simple this is the song for you. If you're looking for technical musicians, weird chord progressions, guitar solos, the whole works, then forget it, Clone just aren't interested.

The next three songs have a drop in tempo and I don't think it works. It just gives me the impression of some American MOR band mixed with a local-town indie band, i.e. nothing that stands out really. The one factor I can say about Clone, however, is that they have an interesting vocalist, alongside some clever harmonies.

"Sitting in the Sun" is very Dodgy, in both its title and its musical style. "Down to earth" threatens to pick up the pace and return to the strengths of "Comet" but after an initial blast for an intro it doesn't do much else.

Like I say, if you just want to have fun then Clone have the perfect song for you.