ONE NIGHT ONLY - STARTED A FIRE

(AU magazine February 2008)

(Vertigo)

ONE Night Only have a terrible name.
It's not so bad - one of the greatest Brit bands of all time The Beatles, have one of the most appalling names ever dreamed up. But still - as a listener, one might say the name One Night Only is a deliberate barrier to musical enjoyment.
Unless... aha! It's a ruse! There's nothing to fear here, because One Night Only's debut album is one of the most 1980s - and therefore, thrilling - records to be released this side of the new millennium.
It's a gift for these retro times, with opener Just For Tonight being entirely indicative of its overblown style - its elegiac, 'St Elmo's Fire'-style soaring rock with a hint of style about the gills.
Elsewhere, the emotive He's There gives a nod to the stellar gloom of Editors coated in some otherworldly sparkle which takes the mundane above and beyond. If One Night Only can get offer their self-given handicap, they are destined to rise high.