Jay's Music Column

Sunday Morning Service (SMS)are the heavier, rockier side to the fantastic Nick Tate. A band who’ve been together less than a year, they’ve already made a stinging buzz playing Ronnie Scott’s and the 02 Academy. So are they worthy of such hype? Oh lord are they.

Opening track Why Was I Bothered Anyway? skips along with an assured strength and angry lyrics that grab at the ears with jolting hooks and almost-screamed vocals from the usually smooth Tate. Already SMS sound less like the fledging new talent they purport to be and more like seasoned players marred but edified by turbulent years of touring and recording.

Track 2 Figured Out By Now let’s up the intensity a slight edge as the vocals cool down before a smack of a chorus flows out. SMS are not unlike The Script but they are most definitely on par with one of the world’s biggest bands in terms of excellent choruses, rock to funk to jazz styling, and quite evident confidence.

3. Easy Street –this reviewers favourite - spanks the speakers roaring ‘you can blame it on the whisky, fire, water, or someone else’s daughter...’. a much funkier side fused with rhythmic rock that beguiles. Visions splurge of Sunday Morning Service playing a clichéd Tennessee bar full of flying bottles of Jack and broken pool cues and storming the place. Tate knows when to add the right amount of gravel and scratch to his vocals. Dom & Craig, the throbbing musical heart of SMS play with belief and aptitude, providing extraordinarily listenable accompaniment.

Track 4, Monsters, is also on Tate's solo album Turn Into Twilight in a softer mix. Here it’s unleashed into the rock persona it suits best. It storms and builds into a deft emotive masterpiece. Track 5, Don't Go Please Stay, shows us a mellower side to SMS, whilst finale Rock Bottom sees the EP mellow away, the reverse of the funk-rock invasion in the first few tracks.

As with his solo efforts, Nick Tate displays with his stunning band a talent utterly deserving of national if not worldwide attention. Excellent goose bump inducing music, stunning vocals and tremendously catchy guitar and snappy drum rhythms have made reviewing Sunday morning Service and Mr. Tate a total pleasure. More please!

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