Devin – You’re Mine

Devin – You’re Mine (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obSyjnkcti8)

This blog was started under encouragement from several friends, but I was never keen on the idea of reviews. I think you need a certain detachment for that and I just don’t have the objectivity or frankly, inclination for criticism. What I’d prefer to do instead is recommend- or in all liklihood just plain rave about whatever it is that has become my most favourite thing ever at that particular moment.

In my quest to attain as complete a musical knowledge as humanly possible, I’ve learned the richest and most trustworthy sources to consult- I’ve recently added Twitter to my arsenal and it’s paying dividends already. I came by ‘Devin’ thanks to @thebrassic, a great Mod-styled band (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y4RDZl7_M8). Appealing for new sounds to listen to, I offered the breezy rocksteady reggae of Hollie Cook and was rewarded with a recommendation of ‘Devin’, for my troubles. Despite what I would consider a fairly well-developed skill for scouring the internet for music, I can still find very little on Devin, this track aside. A paragraph apiece from Rolling Stone and the NME, an EP so far only available in the US, and the video for ‘You’re Mine’ which somehow has yet to hit 10,000 views. Despite that, this track alone has made his album amongst my most anticipated of the year.

Opening with a drum intro and a guitar that sounds like The Drums’ ‘Let’s Go Surfing’ slowed down, it’s the vocals that first mark ‘You’re Mine’ out as something worth taking notice of. Like The Hives covering The Strokes. On the beach. The vaguely Teddy-boy attired Devin howling in to his vintage microphone. With Willy Moon on the horizon, maybe pseudo-50’s is the next big thing…  With repeated listens the guitar is not too far removed from The Undertones’ Teenage Kicks. If I was a proper reviewer I might say it romps joyfully for the length of its 3 minute running time, never relenting as the Buzzcocks drums drive it on, but I’m not, so you’ll have to decide that for yourself. I CAN say that I played it 5 times over the first night and another 10 times in the following  two days and still can’t keep my feet still when I play it now. It’s also provoked its fair-share of air-drumming, which is always a good sign.