Jun 18 2008 10:33 am,
The Subways
‘All Or Nothing’
(Warners)
For a band who started off by playing Nirvana covers, having Butch Vig produce your second album must be a dream come true. And it certainly seems, at first, that he’s helped inject a bit of, well, balls, into their music. ‘All Or Nothing’ begins with some fully charged, high octane doses of grungey punk rock – opener ‘Girls & Boys’ and ‘Kalifornia’ are all plaid shirt riffs and boy-girl harmonies which rush along with intent and conviction. But when, as on ‘Move To Newlyn’ and the title track, The Subways replace the Cobain/Vig influence in favour of a more drippy, generic indie sound, they lose much of their appeal as well. Which means ‘All Or Nothing’ is, actually and ironically, only somewhere in between.
Mischa Pearlman
