The Bishops - For Now Review

Facts about this album:
The Bishops are twins Mike Bishop (vocals, guitar) and Pete Bishop (vocals, bass) and Chris McConville (drums).
The band formed in 2002.
'For Now' is The Bishops' second album, following their self-titled debut.

Album review:
This patchy album shows these sharp-suited Londoners on safe indie territory, but caught in several minds. Do they want to make Franzy indie floorfillers? ‘Hold On’, with its Cars-y propulsion, would suggest they do. But wait, how about jaunty Boo Radleys quirk-pop? ‘Pass Away’ is pretty, ‘For Now’ could be a smash. Hang on, now we’re trying on The Housemartins, are we? No bad thing, as ‘If You Leave Today’ shows. But chaps, country ballads? ‘He Was A Friend Of Mine’ lacks soul. And you haven’t just blundered into an update of Spinal Tap’s ‘All the Way Home’ have you? ‘Train Won’t Stop’ is a snigger-fest. A shame these 14 tracks have exposed their limitations: a streamlined indie-pop LP playing to The Bishops’ strengths would have done nicely....full text Plain, unassuming factories dot the musical landscape. With familiar plumes of black smoke billowing predictably skyward, and commonplace clanging, dispatched from assembly line machinery, echoing faintly in the distance, these prosaic shops create a remarkably lifeless product - manufactured artistry. London has a few (although comparatively less) such structures, and it would appear that its sons The Bishops have contracted one for its sophomore effort For Now.

Unfortunately, this is not new territory for the trio, as they are no strangers to the pen-by-numbers approach to songcraft. Their eponymous debut showed them to be hell-bent on recreating (as opposed to building upon) the sound defined by pop juggernauts of the 1960s. The Kinks, The Animals, and The Beatles served as inspiration for a collection of rather uninspired, and ultimately forgettable, rock nuggets.

To call For Now yet another recreation of a '60s-era album would be an insult to most of the work released during that decade. Sure, nostalgia abounds (albeit with a bit more modern sheen), but The Bishops have, in a terrible way, outdone themselves in their songwriting, and have given new meaning to the term 'autopilot'....full text It's not as if the music industry is short of bands that cite The Beatles, the most successful band of all time, as a major influence. But here come The Bishops regardless. Or rather, here they come again, as this is the second album from the London trio. If you missed them the first time around; they dress smartly and pitch somewhere between The Kinks and The Coral: straightforward pop music layered with harmonies so tight you couldn't squeeze a thing between them.

The whole production package on 'For Now' is similarly tight, the monochromatic sleeve to be expected in true retro styling, though the need to print the lyrics word for word when a lot of them are 'ohs' and 'yeahs' is rather questionable. They certainly look the part; sartorial elegance is not in short supply, but what The Bishops seem to really lack is soul. Their music, whilst arguably not unlistenable, it is pretty sterile: Plundering a style of musical greats but without much imagination. 'City Lights' fades out mid-track, seemingly before the band are even finished with it. 'Hold On' and 'Laughter in The Dark' are ok, but many songs on the album sort of plod along without much drive. They can play their instruments and sing in key - which is more than some bands can do - but come across as style over substance....full text