Traps - Common Errors (Single)
I really wanted to like Traps and to write a positive review of their recently released single Common Errors. I really did. They have a brilliant band name that will ensure they’re not easily forgotten within the Sydney music scene which is currently bursting at the seams with bands vying for the public’s attention. The simplistic, contrasted black and white packaging of the single is also great. I like the scruffy look of the band members, the layout of their website…their lyrics are very good as well. It seems I like everything about Traps except the one thing I am supposed to be working with here.
The single Common Errors comes almost as an EP preview with four other songs. It was a wise idea to add those songs because they prove Traps have more to offer than the song they’re using to pimp themselves.
Common Errors is good by any standards. It has that sort of sound that is likely to be used as a soundtrack to late summer nights by many a tight-jeaned, meticulously messy, “it took me two hours of pampering to look like I just got out of bed” boys and girls drunkenly stumbling down from William St to Oxford St at four in the morning. This is not a reflection on the band of course, but in the closeness of the scene in which this band has produced and released their music, it is impossible to judge the music without being influenced by the crowd responding to it. Though it has to be admitted, I am speculating here as I have yet to see Traps perform live, and I think this may be the biggest hindrance to this review. With any newly emerging band, it is always best to see them live before hearing them recorded. Not only do they usually sound better live, but you can get a feel of everything they’re about, not just the few songs on a released single which are often the first recording experiences of the band, and so on…
But I digress.
Common Errors is just not special enough to be memorable. When I listened to it first I was convinced I’d heard it before, but the chorus is catchy enough to be memorised and I knew I hadn’t – but I’d heard fifteen other songs just like it. It is a good song, yes, great chorus in particular, but it isn’t likely to be remembered by anyone in the years to come. The song following it, Standard Life, has pretty much the same sound, just slightly more mellow. By this stage it becomes obvious that Traps have a penchant for great song endings, all noise and drums and a sort of air of desperation, “do you hear what I’m saying with this song?!” It’s pretty impressive, makes the rest of the song almost irrelevant because they really drum it (no pun intended) into you with the powerful finishes. The third song, Construct/Deconstruct should be disregarded because, although I am sure it would sound great live, probably a lot of falling down and audience participation, it sounds like an annoying whine recorded. But hope is restored with the final song on the Common Errors single, titled The Calling Cure. It is the song which should have been the one released as the single. It has a slightly more polished sound than the other three songs, but is still gritty enough for Traps to retain their “we are a new band and here is what we do and we don’t give a fuck if you write awful reviews about it” feel.
I think all the negativity in this review would have been avoided had I seen Traps live first, then given the single a listen. But then it would have been tainted by the magic live music seems to put on everyone, and it wouldn’t have been a review of the Common Errors single but a review of everything Sydney currently has to offer to an indie bitch like myself, which really is a lot. So I suggest you take yourself to the next Traps gig and prove my review wrong, because I certainly will. If the recorded Traps don’t sound too promising, that doesn’t mean they don’t put on a good show, and quite frankly, I’d rather go to a gig any day than sit in my room listening to records. I made the assumption here that Traps want to be remembered in twenty years but perhaps they’re just giving us everything they’re about at the moment, and not caring whether it becomes the Next Biggest Thing.
I hope to see you at their next gig.
