The Sherlocks’ hotly anticipated debut Live for the Moment is a creature built for success, its top level production turns the album into a collection of singles that will leave a familiar taste in your mouth.

It’s the sound of youth, not of today but the same musical youth so many people my age experienced and, undoubtedly, The Sherlocks expirenced had this too. It’s an album that calls back to the time when indie was king and Topshop-clad youth would hang these bands high on their bedroom walls. In sound it achieves this very well but it forgets to ask itself if they’ve moved on?

Live for the Moment is absolutely chock-a with riffs and frontman Kiaran Crook has made his mission statement clear. They’ve been outspoken about wanting to reinvigorate guitar music once more and they believe that Live for the Moment achieves this. For the festival anthem sound The Sherlocks have clearly gone for, they’ve completely nailed it. The production is spot on for this; they sound clear, absolutely massive and you can imagine their songs being blasted out all over the festival scene. I’m sure in a year you’ll hear it in its rightful environment as well.

The album sets off very strongly with ‘Will You Be There?’ it instantly grabs your ear and within about ten seconds of the album opening The Sherlocks let you know what you’re in for. The drum sound on Live for the Moment is something that’s consistent and very strong throughout. The drums have a huge bellow to them and they are recorded so clearly that it captures the energy of each strike. It’s one of the album’s strong points and it’s what gives the album its outdoor festival feel.

When you’ve got an album of songs designed to be huge festival anthems it does make it very hard for some of them to leave an impression, they do all seem to blur together slightly. Live for the Moment doesn’t feel like an album either, there doesn’t seem to be much of a progression from start to finish, you do get hit with the same thing each time. This leaves the album sounding like a collection of tracks instead of one piece. I don’t think this is necessarily going to be detrimental to its success as what it does it does very well.

‘Turn the Clock’ however, is a really welcome change of pace for the album. The gritty riffs get swapped for something more gentle and the string section takes the song to another level, turning it into one of the album’s high points. The album changes its pace once more on ‘Motions’ which takes a break from the riff-heavy anthems surrounding it. It’s these two moments that are the best bits on the album, it doesn’t take much of a breather from its chorus and riff-heavy songs and these serve as a good counterweight to them.

Live for the Moment isn’t afraid to wear its influences on its sleeve. You can really hear the Arctic Monkeys on ‘Escapade’ which sounds like it could be a cut off Favourite Worst Nightmare. The album sounds like The Enemy, The Pigeon Detectives and I feel it could serve as a gateway drug towards getting kids towards indie bands. It does however miss that bite and grit which came with those bands ten years ago, The Sherlocks almost sound too professional and any angst has been removed from the music.

It’s an album which is going to be undoubtedly successful with a large audience. It does sound like a hark back to the mid-2000s and The Sherlocks have that youthful feel to strike a chord with the listeners. Whilst the album doesn’t break new ground what it does do is take you back to when you were younger and those familiar riffs do leave you feeling nostalgic, yearning for better times.

Chris Middleton

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