The Secret Society

Pepo Marquez has created a secret society with little to do with freemasons one would suspect…

Marquez's music is essentially quiet and largely acoustic – an engaging and pleasingly competent amalgam of folk and punk not dissimilar to Kind of Like Spitting or This Busy Monster – it's striking punk/emo influence, giving some validity to the assertion that Mr Marquez has spent some time listening to hardcore in the past with even the less energetic songs hiding a bristling aggression.

The music, however, is perhaps the less important element of this album, with Marquez's restrained but direct approach manifesting itself as a committed if tentative and slightly flawed socio-political commentary which leads some otherwise strong songs to be undermined by Marquez attempting to reconcile politics with faith and love – from my experience politics has very little in common with either – and although, he says what he means, and says it clearly, I'm not entirely sure what the point is... politically, socially and spiritually, Sad Boys seems to be a record of contradictions.

The Secret Society is one guy with a guitar, singing vaguely political songs in English and sometimes Spanish. It will either be your thing, or it won't.