The Mocking Jays website describes this five piece combo as “East Midlands’ best kept secret” and have already garnered some success with the support of BBC Introducing and that old fox Tom Robinson (for younger readers, he was once quite relevant, I assure you). Their earlier releases can be caught up with by the aid of Spotify, and I suppose you could loosely agree with their website claims of being “a magic carpet ride of Sexy, Funky, Dirty, Pop”. But does “Edge of your Knife”?
Well, yes and no. The production is sonically crisp, polished and punchy, reminiscence of the oh so hip Eighties (especially if you don’t remember this time) and the chorus hook has naggable qualities. It was great to even hear a cowbell being utilised, bringing back lovely memories of that infamous Saturday Night Live sketch with Christopher Walken. And, which was a first for me, to hear a middle-eight which doubled up as PR hype for the band. Nice one fellas!
But with all said and done, this a transitory pleasing track, which, after many listens, fails to graduate from “stock” to “interesting”. Apparently they are a great live band, so I hope to catch them soon. Otherwise a sterling effort which should be checked out.
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Steve Kinrade