Official Secrets Act
Words by Scott Williams and Gemma Dunn
If Brandon Flowers’ farcical lyrics about being either ‘human’ or ‘dancer’ (not both) finally turned you off The Killers for good, fear not, because there’s some new 80’s inspired indie-pop scenesters in town, in the form of the superbly named Official Secrets Act. Belting out stadium-bound anthemic melodies, their music also hides a darker side; one alluded to in their name. “To us it’s about all the parts of the world you’re not allowed to know about and that you’re excluded from,” says lead-singer Tom Charge Burke.
He doesn’t quite pull off the press-baiting misanthrope though, and he’s soon waxing unremittingly about a mammoth 2008 which saw them release their first single, ‘So Tomorrow’, and nearly second single, ‘The Girl from the BBC’, (released in March), as well as record a debut LP that has got label bosses reaching for the Kleenex quicker than a 13-year-old watching late-night freeview.
“We don’t think pop’s a dirty word and don’t think there’s anything wrong with it, as I think we can be seen in that camp as well,” Tom chirps. And OSA are definitely no garage band – something not only made patently obvious by their preppy, immaculate looks but also from the way each song is awash with wave upon wave of production. Tom lists Fleet Foxes, David Bowie and Scott Walker as musical infatuations, insisting the band “love playing stuff on our album that we try to make sound really beautiful and amazing. I know lots of bands think their music should sound grainy and raw but we try to make something that sounds really beautiful as well.”
People have been comparing OSA to The Cure – not that you’d ever imagine a dumpy goth fronting a band so squeakily clean and radio-friendly. But it’s their virginal take on Robert Smith’s starry-eyed romanticism which gives them a head-start over other, less measured acts. On stand-out track Momentary Sanctuary – an ELO-drenched tractor beam of pop perfection – they prove themselves to be a cut above the rest of the field, paying dues to, but never ripping off, the likes of MGMT and Vampire Weekend. Eclectic? Yes. Predictable? No. So, as Official Secrets Act’s star continues to rise into the stratosphere, are there any interesting secrets we need to know? “Well, Mike’s got a third nipple and Lawrence is tired.” Oh well, worth a try.
http://www.myspace.com/officialsecretsact
Posted Fri, March 06, 2009