As soon as the rushing guitars, hyper-speed drums, and clipped, heavily accented vocals of "The Story of a Boy and a Girl" came on, flashbacks of the Jam's "Eaton Rifles" filled the mind. Eurovox are not subtle in revealing their influences; this is a band with shameless yen for mod rock from the Who to the Jam. Shockingly, much of the CD is actually superior to Jam leader Paul Weller's couple of solo records.
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Snappy dressers Eurovox sound like British mod gods The Jam circa 1977 - power chords aplenty, great hooks and short, punchy pop songs - and lead singer/songwriter Mat Hammond is the real deal: He was born and raised south of London. "This Is..." is the shizz - the best Brit-mod pop record of the year, made right here in the Valley.
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The evidence is undeniable: Eurovox equip themselves with borrowed parts: chunks of guitar shrapnel left behind by the Mohawk hordes from London's Class of '77. Although they have a ferocious enough kick drum and the guitars speed with the ferocity of passing asteroids, Eurovox are definitely not punk. Rather, this is working-class British rock, closer in sound, if not spirit, to vintage Who, the Kinks, and David Bowie. Their Bowie fixation is fairly obvious on "The World Won't Wait", but it's not a pale imitation a la Spacehog or Babylon Zoo (remember them?). The group captures the drag years Bowie quite well and, while vocalist Mat Hammond is nowhere near as flamboyant as Ziggy Stardust, he offers a solid, charismatic performance.

With such artists as Kaiser Chiefs, Bloc Party, and Franz Ferdinand taking off in the U.S., there seems to be another British Invasion under way, one that has the potential of topping the last U.K. infiltration of this country in the mid-'90s. However, many of these groups are flashing back to the '80s. Eurovox, on the other hand, refuse to settle for a single era. The band plumbs the English rock & roll encyclopedia for definitions of kick-ass music from the '60s to the '80s. Don't expect any modern touches here; this is classic British rock with an irresistibly stubborn commitment of remaining true to it's Royal blue origins.
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The opener, "Billy No Mates," is as English as they come both lyrically and musically. Since the Jam were never huge in the U.S., it might be to Eurovox's advantage as this will seem fresh to the unenlightened. While there's no power anthem here with the oomph of the Kaiser Chiefs' "I Predict a Riot" or Franz Ferdinand's "Take Me Out," these are solid tracks played with love and energy.
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