Kirtland Records is an interesting label with cool acts like Space Cadet and The Vanished, which debut I wrote about recently. The Hourly Radio then is another Dallas band and is like it?s label mates a quality band with potential. "Favourite Scar" with The Vanished is a pure modern rock album with catchy melodies, very suitable for radio airplay. The "Lure of the Underground" Ep is quite different from that and is deeper and more atmospheric in it?s sound like Flickerstick and U2 with sweeping guitars and big and magnificent melodies. We got songs, which isn?t "typical" and "ordinary" built up with Ryan Short nice guitar play and sets the listener to a test from the opening "First Love Is Forever" to the final track "Travelsigns". Some people might think this is a little odd and non-commercial, cause we doesn?t got the ordinary choruses that The Calling and Nickelback delivers. But all I can say that this is intelligent and challenging, how funny is it to know every chorus on an album after two spins in the cd. Just thought so! A good sign is when an album gets better and better the more you listen to and you can hear new things here and there. This Ep has those qualities and will appeal to fans of the bands I compared them with, even if they doesn?t reach up to a level as high as "Joshua Tree" and "Welcome Home The Astronauts".
