WakingUgly have ironically made a name for themselves as an underground secret of sorts. The Melbourne-based pair, Lydia Gardner and Darren Pace, joined forces back in 2004 and with no releases or recordings attached to their name for nearly six years, they have undoubtedly spent a long time in the shadows. But with the release of their debut EP Say Something Sweet, it is pretty safe to say that the secret is finally out.
WakingUgly have ironically made a name for themselves as an underground secret of sorts. The Melbourne-based pair, Lydia Gardner and Darren Pace, joined forces back in 2004 and with no releases or recordings attached to their name for nearly six years, they have undoubtedly spent a long time in the shadows. But with the release of their debut EP Say Something Sweet, it is pretty safe to say that the secret is finally out.
Superbly combining the finest elements of pop and light rock, Say Something Sweet is catchy, listener-friendly and simply delightful. Equipped with genuinely meaningful lyrics, stunning arrangements and a pop sound that has been long absent from these shores, this EP proves that WakingUgly are a dynamic force destined to turn heads.
Fittingly, the duo’s first single You Know You Wanna takes the place of opening track. As a positive and motivational pop anthem, it tells us that we should always follow our dreams and immediately introduces Gardner’s pop-perfect voice – one which is sugar-sweet but with enough strength to carry a bus load of school children.
Similarly, Must Be Love takes us on a dreamy pop journey, complete with a sing-along chorus. But each track has a very different message and this one concentrates on reminding us about the sometimes lost idea of fairytale-like love, while Zombies takes a more serious approach and warns against the repetitiveness, greediness and shallowness of our consumer culture – “Stop for lunch I think I’m overweight / Now my clothes are all too small / Must go back to the shopping mall”.
Touching on a matter that most have first-hand experience with, Girlfriend divulges the tale of an obsessive, superficial attraction for a man who knows he has ‘got the look’, before Guess It’s Over brings the EP to a close – a break-up song which has enough commendable instrumentation and enough emotion to prevent you from groaning, ‘it has been done before!’
Say Something Sweet is pop as it hasn’t been done in a long time and it ultimately puts any mainstream version of the genre to shame – finally there is a band that can do the genre justice.
