Young Buffalo - Young Buffalo EP Review

On their promising debut EP, Young Buffalo show a lot of promise, but it isn't really anything you haven't heard before.

Young Buffalo are an American two piece band specialising in that sort of post-Dinosaur Jr. indie rock sound. Opening track Baby Demons is a pleasant enough little romp with big drums and fuzzed out guitar tones overlaid with swooning My Bloody Valentine style vocals. It's a good, upbeat and catchy start. The band are a duo, yet the music doesn't suffer from being made without a bass; nor do they make a huge thing out of not having a bass player. 

The next track - Hold Me Back - offers a more jaunty kind of guitar line but more of those big, crashing drums. It is just a very pleasant, inoffensive, indie-pop tune, as is recent single Nature Boy with its fairground style keyboard line. It is nothing new or ground breaking, but it fills a hole that countless other bands doubtlessly fill.

That is the problem with Young Buffalo. It is enjoyable and accessible stuff, but there is nothing here that really sets them apart from any other indie band dialling in catchy yet inoffensive pop songs.

This is more than anything then, an EP that shows promise. Young Buffalo are obviously talented, and there is plenty to like about the five tracks on offer here, but there is nothing that makes them sound. individual.

Ben Walton