Toy

By Jacob Eckert

TOY is a UK band formed in 2010, and its sound is heavily inspired by the pioneering indie rock and shoegaze of fellow countrymen such as My Bloody Valentine and the Jesus and Mary Chain. On top of these influences, they also include an element of krautrock-inspired rhythm in their sound that, along with the high quality of their songs, makes them a very interesting young band.The first track on the band’s self-titled debut album, “Colours Running Out,” is a prime example of TOY’s brilliant mixing of their influences to create a unique work, with the shoegaze of the opening guitar riff giving way to a more Britpop verse that sounds like a more psyched-out version of Pulp. It is a fantastic way to open a debut album, and it hooked me on the band from the moment I heard it.[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/toy_band/01-track-01[/soundcloud]

The entirety of the band’s debut album is able to maintain the quality of its opening track, and is no doubt one of the best shoegaze records of recent years. However, the first three songs stand out immediately as an impressively strong opening trio of tracks, showing right from the start of their first record that they are a talented band with original songwriting. The second track of this trio, “Reasons Why,” is a dreamy indie rock track with a very memorable bassline that gives the song’s instrumental chorus its distinctive rhythm. The final is “Dead and Gone,” a lengthy, spaced-out psych rock track with a great motorik drumbeat.Other tracks on the record show off the band’s pop songwriting skills a little bit more, with “My Heart Skips a Beat” being a highlight of the poppier tracks.

Their second album was released in late 2013 and drifts away from some the shoegaze elements of the debut, giving slightly more attention to the band’s pop song craft. Title track, “Join the Dots" is one of the album’s only moments that goes into an extended instrumental section, although it winds up being one of the album’s highlights, channeling the grooves of Can and the vague vocal melodies of My Bloody Valentine’s Isn’t Anything.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCTmJ1kJoesTOY’s increased focus on melody shines through in the incredibly catchy tracks “Endlessly” and “To a Death Unknown,” the album’s two best offerings in terms of pure songwriting. Only opener “Conductor” drags the album down, as it does not offer nearly enough to justify its seven-minute length, but were it not for that one misstep, Join the Dots would no doubt match TOY’s debut in quality.

It will be interesting to see what TOY does in the future, as they are a band with quite a bit of potential. Conversely, their sound does have quite a bit of potential to stagnate over future releases, so they will have to continue finding innovative ideas and solid melodies to retain the magic of their first two releases.As for now, TOY has a great sound, and similar-sound- ing contemporaries such as Deerhunter have been able to reach solid success in the indie sphere, so it would not be too hard to imagine TOY’s next album being a serious breakthrough for them.Photo Courtesy of Toy