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Live Review: Envy & Other Sins

The stage is set with lamp shades and coat stands, the first signs of the kind of English eccentricity beloved of anyone from the Beta Band to British Sea Power. The band slink on and tune up quietly with little fuss or fanfare, before launching into a short, sharp(-suited) set, looking like a Victorian gentlemen’s club in their retro suits, pointy boots and mutton-chop sideburns.

These are Envy & Other Sins , the Brummie band who won T4’s MobileAct Unsigned at the end of last year. There was a danger that we’d be bowled over by X Factor-style hype and promotional branding. Luckily, though, it’s just four lads taking to the stage like anyone else currently gigging the small clubs.

Their MobileAct-winning song, Highness , is thrown in early, its spiky opening and spiralling guitars wrapping a loser-in-love melodrama up in a riffing and infectious highlight. The sound might be reminiscent of Britpop at times but three-minute pop songs like 'Almost Certainly Elsewhere' and 'Man Bites God' are filled with enough sky-high harmonies and wonky organs that after a while you just don’t care.

With lyrics pitched somewhere between the wit and whimsy of the Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon and the tongue-twisting humour of Alex Turner , everyone’s smiling as frontman Ali Forbes sings “Why do you treat me like a stranger, when I am not a stranger, I’m just a little stranger”.

A swift half hour later and it’s all over. They could do with fleshing out their set with some more songs, but those will come in time. For now, there’s enough tunes and quirky style to see why these sinners are winners.

Alex Cottrill