There have been so many good music releases coming out of Northern Ireland over the last couple of years, that by saying so it almost sounds like a cliché. Something must be going on at the moment over there to create so many talented bands. Northern Ireland’s vast successful musical output includes genres such as post-rock, crazy instrumental, alternative rock, punk-rock, noise, heavy sludge, metal, and we can now add 90s grunge rock to this list too.
Vanilla gloom have managed to produce 3 brilliant grungy pop songs on their debut EP Vexed, sounding just like the kind of stuff I grew up with: 90s alternative grunge rock. There are plenty of comparisons to make here, such as The Breeders, Veruca Salt, and inevitably Nirvana, but this not a bad thing at all, no, take this as a big compliment instead.
Vanilla Gloom consists of Megan O’Kane on bass and vocals, Shannon Delores O’Neill on guitar and vocals, and Grace Leacock on drums. They have only been together for roughly 6 months, which makes this EP release an even bigger feat. Vexed has some great harmonies, nice grungy distorted guitar riffs, “Pixies-like” bass lines, steady drum rhythms and some addictively catchy choruses flowing through the 3 songs ‘Wolves’, ‘Vultures’ and current single ‘Lemons and Wine’.
In this current musical climate with charts dominated by untalented talent contest winners and over-the-top-produced pop tunes we can really do with bands like Vanilla Gloom who bring back the essence of a good and catchy rock tune. Buy the single ‘Lemons and Wine’ here and I recommend you to keep an eye on these 3 ladies. They will get far if they continue this line of creating refreshing catchy tunes like they did on Vexed.
