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The Trick to Life

by The Hoosiers

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If the Feeling’s slick high-crime pilfering of '70s AOR is missing anything in particular--and they do run a tight operation--then it’s a bit of throttle, a hint of recklessness, if that’s not too much of a contradiction in terms. Enter London-based trio the Hoosiers, who pogo like uncaged kids on Saturday morning TV hooked up to McFlurry drips, dancing to Twelve Stops and Home on fast-forward like everything’s quite normal. Or at least they do for much of the time–-"Clinging on for Life" for instance sidles off into an unusually mellow Nick Drake lay-by. But for the most part The Trick to Life is the work of Electric Light Orchestra and Supertramp half-inched, shaken up and handed to McFly to pop the cork. There is much that feels near-plagiarised. "Goodbye Mr A" has more than a little of ELO’s signature "Mr Blue Sky" to it, "Worried About Ray" recalls the Turtles’ "Happy Together" and "Cops and Robbers" isn’t even remotely coy about stealing wholesale from a tune as iconic as the Cure’s unmistakable "The Lovecats". And coming a little closer to home, "Run Rabbit Run" sees singer Irwin Sparkes unfurl a soprano tailor-made for a close impersonation of dreamy indie-poppers the Delays. But if none of that bothers you (or even if it does) the Hoosiers have a super-charged barrel of sugar rushes here that are dangerously immediate and difficult to ignore, sweet tooth or no sweet tooth. --James Berry