Miracle Fortress - Five Roses Album Review

Miracle Fortress
Five Roses
Album Review

Here’s some words for you: Boys, Brian, Beach, Wilson… They were going to crop up at some point; might as well get it out of the way now. In fact there are only few clues along the way of the Five Roses, hinting that Miracle Fortress may not be that very same 60’s beat combo, operating under a different name. Okay, maybe not quite that authentic, but close enough. They plough a finer line of jangle and employ some swirly synths that for some completely inexplicable reason have me thinking of a Stock Aitken & Waterman Xmas pop smash. Then they go and plough a completely different field and go all psych-folk and dumbfound everything I’ve just said. Pah!

I can’t help but think that either I’m missing something here, or Rough Trade are. Five Roses isn’t bad. It’s not bad at all. But it’s so damn wishy washy I nearly threw the contents of the wash basket at it to see if it could get them clean.

There are some gems, though. ‘Fortune’ is a gorgeous, distorted ode to something, a something made all the more mysterious by the barely-decipherable lyrics. But it’ll be Miracle if this sees the light of day in this house again.

Hayley Avron