Let's Go Safari! - EP ★★★

Let's Go Safari asked us to review their recent tracks, available to listen to on Reverbnation. An indie pop band with an electro twist, they have uploaded 6 songs: Song Of My Soul, Bright Lights And Carnivals, The Silver Spoon, The Ballad Of Rikki Tikki Tavi, Saying I Love You and Glad To Be A Grad.


Song Of My Soul starts with a nice cheery intro, a good start. The vocals are not what was expected for an indie band - they are smooth and nicely in tune with the backing instruments. Oddly, the vocals reminded us a bit of Panic! At The Disco's Brendon Urie in their slower songs (see album Pretty. Odd., particularly Northern Downpour).


Bright Lights And Carnival has an odd mix synth and electric guitar as an intro. We're not sure it works: the different tunes each are playing don't always fit together in the short intro, and the guitar sounds quite dull and unpolished in comparison to the naturally clean sounding synth.This could be a metaphor for how carnivals always have a mixture of sounds and beats, but still doesn't sound right. That said, the music and instruments change constantly throughout the song, which is quite interesting and keeps the listener guessing. The second vocalist gets more lyrics in this song, but we would suggest using him as a backing vocalist as the vocals aren't as strong as the lead but they harmonise well together.


With a title like The Ballad Of Rikki Tikki Tavi, we expected an upbeat, theatrical attempt at an electro-indie song, but unfortunately this disappointed us. The intro was a basic and uninteresting synth, and vocals went lower and slower. Granted when the rest of the instruments came in, it was a bit more like their cheerier songs, but it was not enough to make up for the initial disappointment.


The band's songs Song Of My Soul, The Silver Spoon and Saying I Love You are all quite similar in style, with an upbeat electro beat and lovely vocals which would appeal to fans of this type of music. Glad To Be A Grad is also similar, but the vocals are a bit different showing a little diversity and it has a good bridge section, redeeming the band from The Ballad Of Rikki Tikki Tavi.


To summarise, this is a good attempt from the electro-pop duo. With the exception of a couple of areas acknowledged above, they have some good songs which would do well within the genre. We would suggest to them to carefully consider their song titles in future, because random song titles can work - particularly when you have an unusual and playful band name and EP title - but only when they are supported with equally random music. Again, have a listen at Panic! At The Disco; they are a different genre with a different audience, but their album A Fever You Can't Sweat Out should show our point about song titles.