Reviews For Daddy Long Legs - Captain Aqua

The Mag (Via)

Daddy Long Legs are an interesting bunch. It's a bit like Captain, but without the keyboards and with guitars akin to the Doobie Brothers.

"Captain Aqua" is a crisp n dry track with very precise guitars and simple drumming, which gets the added help of some great triangle a bit later on. Things are shared equally between the clear brilliance of the verse and the harmonic almost-explosion of the chorus. It's another great guitar part to introduce "Soup", which is a funkier take on their sound with fantastic "woo-hoo" bits.

It's like the eighties, combined with another take on the more technical bands from the Brit-Pop days. Imagine taking the best of the musicians and making a super-britpop group. Perhaps Gaz and Graham Coxon sharing the guitaring duties, Andy McClure on bass and Matt Everett hitting the skins. (Okay, we'll all have our own favourite line-ups - but you get the idea.)

There are a few minor niggles, mainly that things never really get cracking, which means that big moment remains elusive throughout the two songs, but that shouldn't put you off this band if you like this 80's and 90's mix.

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Rockfeedback (via)

OK, so it might not have actually been as a direct result of the sound of the band that I wanted to create some clamour of my own. But for some young whippersnapper, these notes might just constitute the push in the right direction they need. Youthful themselves, Daddy Long Legs do however know music’s history – this recalls all your favourite intelligent British guitar bands, Blur, XTC, The Cure… it doesn’t sit still. ‘Soup’ is a really marvellous shake, rattle and roll through cracking, adorable riff after adorable riff, whilst its flip ‘Captain Aqua’ is a little darker, something about its curiously murky guitar twinklings and long words suggesting these boys might be pretty damn clever themselves. Clever enough to know that it’s not enough to just have heroes, and that you need good songs that sound like they’re your own. These boys, here, have two.

Each of their releases should come with a plectrum. And be as full of both the inhibited ambition of youth and knowing glances at great bands as this.

Be in a band. Go on. Everyone

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God Is In The TV (via)

Daddy Long Legs, a band on London’s Conker Records, have released a two-track single of no little merit. A side Captain Aqua could be suitable for indie discos given a bit of a polish, with its driving rhythms and guitar riff. The backing vocals are endearingly timid until it reaches ‘the shouty bits’. It’s a great track, a little rough around the edges, but with plenty to interest the listener. On to the double A-side, and 'Soup' starts off like the missing link between Arctic Monkeys and Get Cape.Wear Cape.Fly, then introduces harmonies that flick it all into more Beatles-y territory, with no little hint of The Stone Roses and Brit-pop stuff like the Charlatans. The chord changes and mood evoke The Seahorses. Sound guitar work, handclaps, rolling bass, and wah-ohs make the song. And it’s all very very good, but as you might have noticed, it’s hard to escape the influences inherent in the music. Captain Aqua makes a stab at breaking free, but however enjoyable Soup is, it is weighed down by a history of popular music. There’s potential there, though, oh yes.

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Ear Candy Mag (via)

Captain Aqua is a mix of The Jam, Gang Of Four and The Who all rolled into one with a spot of tea to wash it all down. “Soup” has a funkier more laid back feel ala The Style Council or maybe The Kinks around “Everybody’s In Show-biz, Everybody’s A Star”. This record has a lot of appeal and would be worth the time and effort to track down a copy.

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