Cuba Cuba – Where Else Is Safe But The Road? (Album Review)
Thursday, 30 June 2011
Written by Michelle Kambasha
The past year in British music has seen the demise of the guitar band in the music charts, replaced with grime-pop artists such as Tinie Tempa and Tinchy Stryder. Flash back five years ago and it was a different scenario altogether. With Arctic Monkeys as a guide, British music had not seen the same surge of indie chart success since brit-pop.
Cuba Cuba are one of many groups contributing to the commericially ignored guitar scene. Their debut record exhibits glimmers of intelligence, but these are few and far between. Make no mistake, they can write a song but songs which lack originality. Cuba Cuba has been done before and better.
'Where Else Is Safe But The Road?' Is a concept record about travelling on the road. But put to the musical vision of this young band, its results are far less exciting than anything Jack Kerouac wrote. "We are like the Building Blocks/Coming together searching/forever" sings Morgan Isaac in a staccato fashion. Generally not one to criticise lyrics but in what way do building blocks relate to searching forever? You get the feeling that while the concept is consistent it is malformed lyrically, providing partial evidence of what travelling emotes.
‘Outlines’, is an effort with grandiose sound but sounds like something The Hoosiers would produce – indie music for a pop market and certainly not in a good way.
‘Home is the Fire’ is another stab at an indie pop constructions and metaphorical literary story telling. Perhaps with a bit more success than their other attempts, perhaps channelling Alphabeat this time…make of that what you will.
A ray on sunlight appears on this otherwise uncomfortably humid album. ‘Away Part I’ is built on a lovely melody with gentle falsetto song. ‘Pride Rock’ is also a good song, using The Rumble Strips formula of harmonies as well as experimenting with space and pitch. ‘Away Part II’ is also a notable effort, a departure from the larger sounding songs on the album, it is slow and contemplative. But such songs are few and concentrated in the fourth quarter of the album.
Cuba Cuba are good musicians who are good at writing songs and sound as though they would be good live. But music is increasingly competitive in our digital day and age. Only the strong survive this brutal industry. Good just won’t cut it if they want to be great.
NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
We don't run any advertising! Our editorial content is solely funded by lovely people like yourself using Stereoboard's listings when buying tickets for live events. To keep supporting us, next time you're looking for concert, festival, sport or theatre tickets, please search for "Stereoboard". It costs you nothing, you may find a better price than the usual outlets, and save yourself from waiting in an endless queue on Friday mornings as we list ALL available sellers!
Cuba Cuba are one of many groups contributing to the commericially ignored guitar scene. Their debut record exhibits glimmers of intelligence, but these are few and far between. Make no mistake, they can write a song but songs which lack originality. Cuba Cuba has been done before and better. 
