The Rifles, The Great Escape

Note: This falls under the "something new" category.

Writers who write about music love a good band name, but they love even more a band name that allows them to show off just how clever they are. They live to slide in a pun – even a groaning cliché – that can both describe the music and reference the band’s name all at the same time. Enter The Rifles. A name like that provides so many opportunities it’s enough to, well, make a writer’s head explode: the record starts off with a bang, is loaded with good songs, but in places it “misfires” or “shoots a few blanks”…and so on.
Rather than craft a clever review that would make the NRA proud, though, I’ll just run down a few quick bullet points about The Rifles’ new album, The Great Escape.
 Their mostly guitar-centered sound often mixes abrasive angularity with arena-friendly hooks and choruses that beg for sing-along, i.e. “the world is ours and ours alone” on “Science is Violence.” They’re too slick and calculated to be “garage,” but they play with several different styles from across the “indie” spectrum to varying success.
 Like many other British bands, The Rifles embrace and blatantly display their influences. The Great Escape occasionally features lead vocalist Joel Stoker attempting to channel Morrissey atop dark pop in a Smiths vein, not to mention the occasional nod to Beatlesque psychedelia (particularly “Strawberry Fields Forever”). Their influences embrace them, as well; Paul Weller of The Jam recently joined them onstage for a couple songs.
 3 Tracks I’d Throw on a Mixtape (today, anyway): Science is Violence, The General, Winter Calls

Here's their title track and first video from the just-released album: