Anyone that follows me on twitter will realise that I absolutely love this band, although unfortunately never got to see them live. While the first four tracks of this release are solid Hey Mercedes material, summed up pretty well by “Roulette Systems” punch and pace, the final track is a live version of ‘Un-orchestrated’ (which appeared on their last album “Loses Control”) and I’ll never forget the first time I heard it. In 2005 I went to work at an American summer camp and took CD-r copies of every record I owned (before my ipod days) and slowly worked my way through them. After eight weeks of upbeat pop music at camp I started dipping into my slightly obscurer bands and eventually found my way to The Un-orchestrated EP at about 5am on a Greyhound bus journey between New York City and Bowling Green, Ohio. The greyhound had a faulty air vent and the coach was freezing, so I wrapped myself up in my sleeping bag and hoped not to fall asleep in case I missed my stop. I fell asleep for a few hours and was woken by a man talking about his illness and how he isn’t going to get any better but doesn’t even really know what’s wrong with him. It scared me. It was a heartfelt and you could hear the increasing paranoia in the guy’s voice. I really felt for the guy but didn’t know how to help him in my sleepy state. Then the bass line kicked in and I realised that it was a movie quote introduction to the live track and calmed down. The darkness, the cold, the disorientation and then the awesome music combined really made the perfect first listen to this track and since then it’s always been my favourite Hey Mercedes moment. I fell back asleep and almost lost my bag to a thief at a coach stop, but didn’t miss my stop.

Hey Mercedes, in particular this EP, are brilliant.

Tom