BETWEEN the jerkiness of Elastica and the sarkiness of Sleeper, Echobelly tread a jangly path through the midriff of Britpop, stepping lightly through their early `80s influences. At the Olympia on Friday night, Sonya Aurora Madan commanded the attention with her soft, Asian features, holding the mike like Morrissey's baby sister, and enunciating the lyrics with open faced clarity. The songs are built like classic pop tunes, with strong opening riffs, clever hooks and celebratory choruses, but they sometimes seem held together with sticky tape instead of rivets.
The rest of the band took impossibly young, especially second guitarist Debbie Smith, who could easily be mistaken for a 14 year old boy as she hunches lad like over her guitar neck. Lead guitarist Glenn Johansson has a fairly straight forward style which he must have borrowed from classic punk bands like The Vibrators or The Motors, while Sonya waifish delivery calls to mind such bands as The Passions 01 Altered Images.
Echobelly released their second album, On, last September, and despite Sonya's fluffy facade, the songs are uncompromising statements of intent. Great Things says it all Sonya wants the world, and she won't settle for a continent. Since Echobelly have already won hearts in both America and Europe, perhaps it's not an idle boast. The Taste Of You is a sexually charged pop tune which hides something wicked under its candy coated shell, while Something Hot In A Cold Country is a reassuringly warm hand on the shoulder.
There may be dark things lurking under Echobelly's pretty pop facade, but it doesn't take long to tire of the view, and lose interest in searching for something deeper there. Echobelly work to a well worn blueprint of New Wavey Britpop, and though they deliver it with a smile and a flourish, it still sounds a bit jaded after a while.
