Spector - Grey Shirt & Tie

The music industry works very much in a cyclical way and we’re getting to that point where soon we’ll be deluged with end of year lists and tips for 2012. Like a sheep Breaking More Waves will be in with the herd, starting on December 1 with our 10 Ones To Watch for 2012 followed by our Top 10 Albums of the year, which leads us neatly up to Christmas.

Of course one of the big tip lists of the year is the BBC Sound of list, which will no doubt encourage the usual round of debate complete with a fair degree of negativity from elements of the public on internet message boards along the lines of “all of these are rubbish,” or “who are these judges, what do they know about music?” and even better the classic “there hasn’t been any good music since The Beatles.”

In terms of the BBC Sound of 2012 here’s a band that we first featured on the blog back in May who have been doing all the right things to position themselves for a nomination from this years panel of ‘tastemakers’. With a couple of low key singles getting some small scale radio play, summer festival slots, UK blog buzz, toilet venue tour this autumn and this song Grey Shirt & Tie due to be released on Luv Luv Luv records (who rather like Neon Gold a couple of years back who put out debut singles by Passion Pit, Ellie Goulding and Marina & The Diamonds, have become the boutique label du jour releasing singles from Jamie N Commons and Theme Park, besides this one) Spector have positioned themselves neatly on the grid for the Sound of 2012 list. All they need to do now is be announced for the next NME tour and they would have ticked all the boxes for imminent take off. Don’t think this is all natural organic indie progression though – there’s a major label (Fiction) behind it all.

Ultimately though, irrespective of major or indie label the band will succeed or fail because of the quality of their songs. Or we’d like to think that, and we hope you do to.

“We’ve only released 2 singles and this may be as good as it gets. And if it is, fine,” lead singer Fred recently told the NME. Grey Shirt & Tie is the bands third, released on Dec 5. It’s crooning radio-friendly commercial sounding indie (if that’s not a contradiction in terms). It’s hardly breaking down any barriers, sounding like The Killers doing a Richard Hawley ballad for a slow dance in an 80’s disco, but it’s pleasantly listenable. You may even find yourself unknowingly humming it as you set off to work, school or college tomorrow.

This is our last post on Breaking More Waves for a couple of days. We’re back on Thursday. Until then we’ll leave you to decide if Spector are Ones to Watch for 2012.

Spector - Grey Shirt & Tie