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Herald Rating: * * * *
If expectations for the Checks' debut album are high, then they've only got themselves to blame.
After all, they've been widely feted by overseas interests - Oasis, R.E.M. and the Hives all got them in as a support act in far flung places; then there was that guy from the NME and the London indie label which signed them up and dragged them Up Over.
They've been frequently cited as our Next Big Things and leaders of the Takapuna Grammar-bred North Shore pack. But the real anticipation comes via a smattering of singles and having established themselves as a shit-hot stage act.
It's that live power, confidence and charisma which has made the idea of the Checks - time-warped teens delivering retro Mod-era 60s R&B complete with guitar solos straight out of the Paleozoic era - seem anything but quaint and misguided.
On this album they've certainly caught that urgency and the infectious excitement - as well as the raw-throated eccentricity of frontman Ed Knowles, a truly enigmatic garbler of lyrics.
But it still sounds like the album of a band in its first chapter. One working through those influences, figuring out how to turn mighty riffs into meaty songs while sometimes defaulting to the sort of moves - another searing guitar solo at the two-minute mark? Why not? - which might turn the Masonic Tavern into a free sauna on a Saturday, but can make a whole album feel like it's repeating itself.
So Hunting Whales lacks a degree of surprise for anyone who has been following the story so far.
Though it does show up a promising gentler side, as displayed on Kinks-ish songs like Tired From Sleeping and Where Has She Gone? with its layered harmonies as well as the slinky swingin' boy-girl duet Terribly Easy ("I don't find it terribly easy to dedicate my life to love" sings a briefly melancholy and low-volume Knowles before hollering up another storm in the final bars).
But Hunting Whales is dominated by the what the Checks do best - great shout-along stompers delivered in such a way as to suggest they're the missing link between the La De Das and the Dance Exponents.
That includes the tribal chanting blues and Zeppelin moves of the title track, the lurching opener of early single Mercedes Children and the staccato riffery of What You Heard (even if its guitar break makes it sound dangerously like Huey Lewis).
Yes, the Checks' best tracks come with a sense that they are proclaiming something about being young, talented, loud and steeped in the classics. And that makes Hunting Whales a riot of a record.
Label: Sony BMG
Verdict: Local boys done good, at long last
