There’s a buzz coming from Kansas City right now. No, it’s not Taylor Swift’s hunky pig-skin-catchin’ boyfriend, or their Superbowl-bound Football team, but instead Indie band ‘Say That Again’ (but instead indie band ‘Say That Again’) releasing their first full length album. Let’s review it. And I promise* I won’t make the name-repetition joke at the band’s name again. Maybe. *Probably not.

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The band, Say That Again, might be unaware of the craze in the mid-2000’s within the UK of guitar-driven indie bands that dominated the music industry briefly this side of the Atlantic ocean. Prominent guitars leading the instrumental set-up of tracks, with proud regional accents fronting, the likes of The Kooks, The Maccabees and The Wombats (to name a few) were everywhere for a few years. Say That Again is almost like discovering a forgotten gem - a rare example of a band utilising nothing but their instrumental talent and songwriting prowess to create a compelling album.

“Get Over It” starts strong, with minimal instrumental introduction before hitting full swing. The songs are catchy, whilst maintaining a simplicity that makes it very easy to consume. The starting track is high in energy, with a stable but high-tempo performance from the drummer to drive the track. The band answer our commonly asked question regarding dynamic variance, and despite a simple and repetitive chorus, they ensure every section has enough change in dynamics or tempo to keep you engaged.

'Get Over It' studio album from Say That Again will release on 23rd February

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The second track - When We Get Older, keeps the energy and momentum, while offering a step down in dynamics. This track allows the backing vocals to play a bigger part in the building of the songs, creating a wall of sound with different harmonies. The ending of the track is simply epic, going from high dynamics to just vocals. The song feels plucked from a “Teenage Dirtbag” compilation, and I love it.

The next two tracks [I barely Know Her + Closed Captions] feel like an intentional dip in the overall dynamic journey of the album. The vocals allow themselves to be exposed in Closed Captions. There’s a rawness to the intro that I first questioned - however with the support of the rest of the band, the vocalist has a well suited timbre - creating that similarity to mid-2000s raw-indie bands. The “Closed Captions” lyric does feel clunky - almost like the song’s inception came from the lyric instead of being selected for fitting.

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Throughout the album I tried to draw a clear influence or comparison, but really struggled. I love finding music that you can’t quite place - particularly when that uniqueness stems from nothing but raw instruments and musicianship. I thought of Keane, or Two Door Cinema Club - but both feel significantly different in their essence and auras. Some of the guitar tones and solos (like the riff from the album’s midpoint ‘January’ felt like it was plucked from a more recent Coldplay song). Anytime you can create music that has identity and uniqueness as a band you’re on for success. Often, your ‘unique’ sound can be divisive, but Say That Again’s non-offensive dynamic and calm vocals makes this entire album a very easy listen, regardless of your genre preference.

After a dynamic lul in the middle of the album (most certainly not a negative! But possibly could have been lifted between?), the track “Hang Tight” welcomes a surfer sound, with familiar guitar riffs and upbeat singing. The breakdowns and structural variety within this track is one of the stronger points of the album. It links nicely into ‘Julian’, which risks more variety within production, exposing the vocals - however reinforced by vocal effects, this track takes the risk to mix up what has been a stable rock throughout the album. It was this track that made me feel an inspiration to earlier works of The Killers - which can retrospectively be heard throughout the album. (The Killers, despite being from Nevada US, were a prominent member of the Indie movement in the mid-2000s - so maybe I had a point at the start!!)

Julian, when I listen isolated from the album, is absolutely f**king awesome. In my mind I could hear the track blasting through a car radio, offering enough to be consumable by multiple audiences and sounded like one of those bloody great songs by Brandon Flowers’ The Killers. Throughout the dynamic step-down in the middle of the album, I hoped for that one last punch indie bands often have at the back of their albums (think ‘From Ritz to the Rubble’ following ‘When the Sun goes Down’ in Arctic Monkeys’ album ‘Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not’), and ‘Julian’ was absolutely this. Anytime a band can create a desire and then immediately fulfil it within their album is a good sign of achieving their overall vision which I believe Say That Again have done.

Looking at Say That Again’s album Get Over It as an entire project, the album flows almost perfectly. There’s not really a stand-out track (possibly ‘Julian’as a leading song?) and I felt no desire to skip due to every song - even every SECTION of every song - offering something that hadn’t been heard previously. ‘Get over it’ by Say That Again ticks most of the boxes for a perfect album. The only moment I felt could be logged as a negative was in the midpoint of the album - after four songs that felt lower dynamically, arguably in the necessary ups-and-downs great albums typically have, I was left longing for the energy to pick up by maybe one track too many. But overall ‘Get Over It’ is an intentionally put-together, rare example of modern musicians writing an ALBUM, instead of lumping singles in a collection. For older boys like myself, the album scratches the itch of raw music and strong songwriting that has been elusive for almost a decade now.

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Making an album is hard. Making a great album is almost impossible. What Kansas City’s Say That Again have achieved is one of the goals shared by almost every musician - to create something unique. In a world filled with autotune and AI-synthesised tracks, it gives me hope to hear a band pick up a f**king guitar and create something truly brilliant.

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