The Shills

Hailing from Cambridge The Shills follow in the footsteps of umm, Tom Findlay and lets face it he wasn’t in Cambridge when Groove Armada made it. So The Shills are quite the anomaly.

New single 'Apparition' isn’t exactly mind-blowing and yet not a total pile of monkey fuck either. It straddles that mediocre line that many bands quite rightly fear, the line between quite OK and quite rubbish. The Elvis Costello esque vocal melody is reasonably catchy and the musicianship is competent, but as a whole 'Apparition' just lacks that vital spark that could set the whole thing off. The band feel stuck in a past.

If you loved The Smiths or The Clash then The Shills will serve as a nice bit of nostalgia but that’s about it. 'Apparition' is as instantly likeable as it is instantly forgettable.