Genres are a necessary evil that frequently lead to generalised and inaccurate descriptions of a band's sound, but there are ways to get around their arbitrary and approximating nature, and London-based trio Tat are a band that require a little bit of that creativity. Part of the reason for this is their face-value similarities to pop-rockers Paramore - namely the
we have guitars and a chick that sings syndrome - but however the public define them, there will be no such disservice loaded on the band here. Formed in 2003, and having supported bands like NOFX, Me First And The Gimme Gimmes and MxPx, Tat know exactly where they stand - as a spirited, talented and exciting pop-
punk band, emphasis on the punk. You won't find anything on their 2008 debut LP Soho Lights to shake you to the core out of its brutality or weight, but what you
will encounter is an aggression and urgency that renders them a breath of fresh air.
Let's get the easy one out of the way quickly: fine, vocalist Tatiana DeMaria resembles Hayley Williams to a certain extent, only with far more drive and bite, and the passionate performance she pulls out is captivating and sincere at all junctures. Her subject matter, though hardly groundbreaking, is for the most part evocative, and there are a couple of fantastic lines through Soho Lights' runtime, like in the piano-assisted Here's To You as she drinks away the memories of a lover:
'Until I found you, here's to you; there's only so much wine can do.' Very occasionally, she skates on thin ice as she indulges in clichés - take as an example Sandra Dee - but she always pulls herself back into very competent lyricism before the song has a chance to fall into the water below. Slower tracks like Stay Up work brilliantly, played out atop strummed acoustics with interspersed electric accompaniment, as she argues that
'we all get a little ***ed up sometimes.'
Bassist Nick Kent and drummer Jake Reed are both talented musicians whose creative and consistent performances ensure the album never lulls or becomes predictable, and vary their approaches in such a way as to create tracks and tones that are easy to distinguish and recognise; when they match rhythm as they do throughout Taking It All, they're capable of carrying songs on their own, and when you staple DeMaria's pop-punk guitar riffs to such a rhythm section, the songs that result are both catchy in every facet and deep enough to come back time and time again.
I would say that there are no outstanding displays of technical mastery on Soho Lights but, while that's probably the case, to make such a statement would be to disregard the musicianship shown on the album's best track, Pessimist. Beginning over a rapid-fire palm-muted guitar riff, the third track on this record is basically one of the best songs released in the last couple of years. Background vocals, momentum-packed guitars and a chorus that is both euphoric and pensive at once combine to forge one of those punk tracks that jumps into your veins and swims around for days on end. When DeMaria happily shouts,
'When you need me the most, I'll be pissed off my face, I'll be stoned and I'll be loving it!' it's easily the record's single standout moment, and on an album so full of adrenaline-fuelled hooks that's no mean feat.
Soho Lights lacks the scope or ambition to be anything more than a thoroughly enjoyable punk offering, but that doesn't make it any less of an achievement on that scale. The band almost always sound like they know exactly where they want to be, which is in venues small enough to feel personal but big enough to hear the hooks being sung back at them, and their debut is a record to match that idea. It's rarely vicious, offensive or overly heavy but it doesn't pretend to be. It doesn't really pretend to be anything. It punches, dances and shouts with all it's got, is accessible enough to appeal to radio but substantial enough to merit about 50 plays a week, and raw enough to feel like a punk record rather than a token gesture to their genre label. Soho Lights hasn't quite propelled them to the heights they're capable of, but Tat are very much a band to keep your eyes on, and their debut LP is an excellent summation of what they're about.
