Oliver Future - Oliver Future (Lilywhite, 2003)

Oliver Future
Oliver Future
Lilywhite
2003

Rating: 7 freak missiles out of 10

Something about the music of Oliver Future has “hit” written all over it – it’s all just a matter of it being heard by the right people at the right time.  The key to their sound is how much it reminds me of Radiohead’s older material; singer Noah Lit doesn’t really sound like Thom Yorke, but the way he uses his voice becomes instantly familiar upon the very first listen.  The music also has a similar quality to it, particularly in how the keys are layered with the music and the way they *don’t* use their guitars. That is, letting the lack of guitars from time to time speak just as loudly as any riff you could have played at that moment, a dub-like sensibility that often pops up in the later work of Radiohead.  Ultimately though, Oliver Future never really come across as a blatant rip-off of Radiohead and/or Yorke – rather, they just seem like a group who’ve grown up with and heavily influenced by their music and it just naturally comes out this way when Oliver Future writes and records their songs. 

Other than the Radiohead influence, you could also draw some parallels to The Strokes or The Dandy Warhols, although this link is only heard in a couple of songs.  All in all, not a bad beginning for these young lads; perhaps with time they will gradually develop a more distinctive sound that is all their own.  Even if they don’t, the place they are in now isn’t a bad place to reside either.