EP Review: Wall Street Riots: 'Playground Politics'

WALL STREET RIOTS: 'Playground Politics EP' (Division Promotions)

As their ever-burgeoning fanbase will tell you, there's something undeniably attractive about London's Wall Street Riots. Oh sure, they've got oodles of Smash Hits pin-up appeal, with their chiselled cheekbones and blemish-free skin, but thankfully, it cuts deeper than that. Début EP 'Playground Politics' reveals the true ace up their tight T-shirted sleeves: the ability to write unfathomably infectious songs. The four slices of sleazy, groove-led guitar pop on offer here are guaranteed to etch themselves onto your brain; hell, you'll probably find lead track 'Dr King' swaggering its way out of the sound system in your local alt club, turning the clientèle into a sweaty mass of hip-swinging, ass-shaking lunatics.

That isn’t their only strength though: the band have a likeable gang mentality too, a sort of juvenile, but fun, camaraderie that's reflected in their lyrics, from the revenge politics of 'Karma Kids' to 'Lords of Dogtown's scenester-baiting and championing of the underdog. It's very easy to feel part of their world, so welcoming is the music.

Only problem is, once you’re in the gang, it quickly becomes apparent that Wall Street Riots don’t really stand for much at all. And sure, not every band has to make use of the pedestal we erect for them to wax poetic about this issue or that, but it certainly looks like these guys want to have significance. Their name is incendiary enough, dripping with cultural relevance in these economically challenged times. And then we have their graffitied artwork, and the T-shirts that feature gangsters brandishing guns, that they even superimpose onto photographs of Barack Obama and Lindsay Lohan on their Myspace.

“Yes!”, you may think, “A cheeky bunch of upstarts with something to say, with enough balls to give the system a swift quick up its arse!” From their image, you’d be quite right; but as soon as the stories about friends who lie to keep their girlfriends kick in, you realise that they’d run a mile in the opposite direction as soon as the system fought back. They’ve got the swagger, but nothing else; Wall Street Riots are all talk and no bite, feeling a little too much like a case of style over substance. There’s nothing clever about appearing to be rebellious, but merely wanting to dance. That’s just disappointing. For all their music might initially have you tapping your feet, before long, you’ll be shrugging your shoulders. (5/10)