The Dykeenies - Are You With Me Now?

(Muso's Guide, March 30, 2009)

Single review

Having been around for the best part of five years, The Dykeenies are one of those indie bands who make superfans - small, kooky, excitable people with button badges on their chests and the fulfilling the hair colour pre-requisite of at least one unnatural colour per 100,000 strands.

But bands do not make success by scene alone, so what of their mainstream impact? It’s not been massive, granted, but ‘Are You With Me Now?’ could be about to change all that.

Drums start slow and lead into a guitar part that wouldn’t have sounded out of place on the Manic Street Preachers‘ 1993 sophomore record Gold Against The Soul.

The American accented vocal which has infiltrated the even the once-stoic British independent scene is never more prevalent than in the Glaswegian boys’ delivery.

The titular enquiry is howled, heartfelt, over soaring guitars and a recurrent melody, a grandiosity which marks the track out for inclusion on the soundtrack of an episode of Smallville.

More questions follow, “Are you fading in and out?/Where did it all go wrong?” but the Dykeenies never offer an answer, spurred on the insistent beat continuing like a marathon runner.

Ending on a electronic note, this swollen anthem of youth shows that The Dykeenies are clearly ready for the next level of fame.

Are you with me now?