Tag-Team Preacher – ‘Sell It To Me’ EP review

I’m not a big fan of bands who mix, match and mash different styles of music. Usually, bands that belong to this mash-up category fail in doing some of the most important things of being in a band; being creative and having a distinct identity.

All these, however, are far from what Tag-Team Preacher is all about. When i started listening to their EP ‘Sell It To Me‘ it reminded me of music of other bands, but I couldn’t really put my finger on it.  It’s a bit of late era Velvet Underground mixed with Television, or laid back soft country rock of the 70s, with a bit of an indie feeling.

But the “what it sounds like” is not important in this case as Tag-Team Preacher is a band that owns each one of these styles and have proceeded to make their sounds stand out from the rest. Indeed, they sold it to me.

Steve Ward, front man, with a sound presence in the local scene has done a great job in recruiting Daniella Rezende, Pete Carlill, Jack Hughes, Natasha Williams and Bruce Henry Renshaw as the end result is highly rewarding. It is a rather refreshing and inspirational EP coming from a Leeds-based band that breaks the stereotypes of rock made in the North.

The EP consists of 5 tracks, each one with an edge to it. The opening track ‘Sell It To Me’ eases the listener in to a series of great emotional songs with clean-cut vocals and intense melodic guitar leads. ’Delia’ brings out a feeling of  summer rebellion and sunshine romance whilst ‘Back To Mine’ is a musical narrative, both in lyrics and soul-touching music. ‘You Could Forever Be Chasing The Sun’ transmits an understated melancholic optimism. I’d say ‘Pact With The Devil’ for me is a miss in comparison to the rest of the tracks, it lacks originality and is slightly cringy and reminiscent of 80s sad pop-rockers.

Make no mistake though. Each one of these tracks is carefully performed and it is obvious that a lot of work has been put into this EP. The melodies and vocals are spot-on and having seen Tag-Team Preacher live, I’d say this is a band that deserves a label-break. They have managed to play feel-good pop/rock without falling into the easy-listening generic music trap.

I’m very much looking forward to their next EP, to be released towards the end of the year.

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