At the tail end of last week, I was sent some music to listen to and review. Might not sound like much but it makes a big difference to how I normally do things!
Anyway, let’s get down to business. Here’s my review of The Last Gasp and their latest single, “Home”
Hope you enjoy reading,
Keith
Quick bio of the band:
The Last Gasp are a 3 piece punk / grunge rock band from East Kilbride, and made up of Colin Ballantyne (lead guitar / vocals), Alan Couper (bass guitar) and Simon Shaw (drums / acoustic guitar). Looking through the history of the band, their music has mainly been heavy rock, but the piece of music I was asked to review is entirely acoustic, just as some of their other songs are. This is a good thing to see, as bands that are able to mix their genres and styles of music is a talent some don’t have
Song overview:
Released in November 2018, Home is the latest single from the band, and as I’ve mentioned before, is a departure from the style of music that they have written in the past. First thing that we hear is an acoustic guitar playing a soft and warming riff, this riff is repeated throughout all verses, before the tempo changes and the song picks up in the chorus, although you can hear some hints of the opening riff throughout the verse, a nice touch
The structure of the song is simple introduction verse chorus gap verse chorus. Simple and effective, but it would be nice to hear a solo or some kind of melody sometime throughout the song, in-between the verses or choruses, or maybe perhaps after the second chorus, having a short solo then leading back to the chorus for the conclusion. Apart from that, I’m a big fan of the sounds made from both acoustic guitar and bass guitar, they pick up the tempo perfectly in the chorus, creating a pleasant and warm sound
Lyrics analysis:
In terms of lyrics, again this element of the song is very solid. They’re simple and plain, but strong and memorable as well. The chorus of “in my home” will no doubt draw people in to singing along as well when the band is performing live.
Vocals are performed nice and strong, there’s no sign of weakness or struggle to achieve the desired result. Colin Ballantyne does a great job here, his voice is a perfect fit for this song
Music video:
I’m not sure whether you can call this a stereotypical music video, as usually there’s a story element to music videos these days. But, that doesn’t mean that there needs to be a story in a video, and this video is a great example of that. The video is a beautiful slideshow of Scotland at its best, inclusive of some of its best views, such as Glen Coe and many other natural landscapes, before the video closes out on an ascending view of the Christmas Markets at George Square. This video is perfect for a song of this style and writing, top marks to whoever’s idea this was!
Overall thoughts of the song:
Overall, Home is a song with great potential, I don’t see why this song can’t be successful for the band. We need to remember that the video for this song has been watched just over 7,000 times on Facebook, there’s obviously a public appeal here. The song itself is good, albeit slightly plain as it doesn’t have any outstanding melody (i.e. solo etc). That’s just my opinion though, no doubt there’s people out there who don’t realise there’s no solo and not bothered about it. I do really like the sound of the song, don’t take anything away from that
Keep an eye on this band for the future, if they can keep up this level of song writing then you’ll be hearing of the Last Gasp a lot more
Appropriate Links:
https://www.facebook.com/TheLastGaspofficial/?ref=br_rs
Music Review Scotland 