CHILDHOOD SEMESTER

If there's like, nothing out there about a band or artist - as in, they don't have a Facebook page or Twitter account - then the only way to find out information is to google 'em (it's the verb so I ain't capitalising anything). However, with an ungoogleable name like Childhood, that could be pretty tricky. A lot of people now are taking the one-everyday-word-is-all-I/we-need stance when it comes to band names and aliases. Which I don't mind at all. I actually quite like it. What I don't like is being unable to find out anything. Luckily, Childhood are on FB and twitz so it's ok, don't worry. Just sayin' was all.

Anyway, they are a four-piece/quartet/four-person-band from London. Made up of Ben Romans Hopcraft, Leo Dobsen, Daniel Salamons and Jonny Williams, they describe themselves as a "hot boyband" - you be the judge of that. They're pretty handsome, I'll say that much. But I'm not here to judge looks. This ain't a beauty contest yo. This is a music contest. Minus the contest part.

So anyway, this song is called 'Semester' and it's a wonderfully distorted number that has a really nicely produced bass, a real low-low gravelly sound, something you often don't get with this brand of lo-fi indie pop, which is quite refreshing.

The vocals, with a similar yet Southern-accented yearning and confidence displayed in the past by Alex Turner, are backed up by "ooo-ooo"s that give it a nice pop hook - something retro about that too. There's a grey sky feel to the song, something distinctly English in the sound. The guitars jangle with light distortion in the verses, scream away completely overdriven in the chorus sections, and later on in the bridge get completely shoegazey with heavy doses of flanger - that's whilst the drums go intermittently go mental with a lot cymbal bashing.

It's a nice sound overall - decidedly raw, especially the drums, which sound as if I could be hearing them from next-door, and slightly bleak yet with the friendly jangle and catchiness of pop that will make Childhood a quite-sure hit, if they aren't already. This is the AA-side (what? I thought it was "B-side"?) from a single with another song of theirs, 'Solemn Skies'. You can buy that here.

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