Album Review: City Riots - Sea Of Bright Lights

Adelaide rockers City Riots have always proven an inconsistent beast and perhaps even a little flippant with taking care of fans in the past, but can now put that feeling to rest with the release of their debut album – finally! Sea Of Bright Lights abandons anything the band has offered sonically in the past for something that feels a little less forced, a lot more relaxed and definitely a lot more cohesive.

Still undoubtedly taking their cues from classic '80s rock, the album steers their sound to something that feels more European in the vein of The Cure or the likes of Simple Minds rather the Springsteen-flavoured, fist-pumping material once presented. Breathy vocals and seemingly effortless, albeit unchallenging, songwriting are just two aspects of what's great about City Riots, whether it's frontman Ricky Kradolfer or guitarist Matthew Edge helming either. The opening Turn and centrepiece Sucker Punch take you straight to the beach, all top down on the jeep and surfboards in the back, while Lonely Hearts, Back To Normal and closing track, It's Been A Long Time, prove to be sporadic highlights. The real gold, however, lies in the more mid-paced numbers, the ones all awash in reverb-drenched vocals, walls of guitar and a basic yet powerful rhythm section – first single, Wait For You, the radio-ready Catch The Sun and infectious-as-sin Take You There.

All in all, Sea Of Bright Lights is a competent and very promising effort from City Riots. They're clearly still finding their 'thing', but when they do and settle on it they could be simply remarkable.