Flat Party – ‘It’s All Been Done Before’ EP review: future-setting, nostalgia-informed greatness

Posted On November 14, 2024November 14, 2024

Go to any independent venue on any given night in a city, and you’ll likely find an indie band. This world, and especially this country of the UK, is absolutely swollen with them and has been for a long time as somewhere between the ‘Battle Of Britpop’ and Alex Turner’s slick back hair, the band-making machine went into overdrive. The result is that it’s hard to be special in such conditions. It’s hard to stand out or get the attention a certain act might rightfully deserve when there’s simply only so much love to go around and only so many guitar rock songs a person can hear. But get the spotlight ready and shine it bright, because Flat Party, actually, deserve it.

There is an ongoing and boring debate that likes to claim that, simultaneously, nothing can be new anymore, and nothing that is influenced by the past can be interesting. A certain sect of particularly irritating music lovers see the phrase “for fans of” and instantly read it as a negative as if being inspired by something negates all sense of the talent, uniqueness or worth. But really, there is a real skill needed to take notes from the past and modernise it in a way that feels genuinely fresh and worthy of attention.

Flat Party nail that. They have the seductive swagger of Suede, but yet keep you hooked in enough with refreshed intrigue that you don’t simply want to wander back to ‘Animal Nitrate’. Their lyrics are packed with the sort of punchy, snarky one-liners that make Pulp so great but don’t feel like bits bitten from Jarvis Cocker’s whole routine. Their songs are anthemic in the way that Blur and Oasis have forever cashed in on, but they’re keeping hold of those lessons in tight hooks while also going way beyond the four chords and a dream approach.

On It’s All Been Done Before, the title feels like a perfect nod to that as they coax listeners in with these foolproof Britpop callbacks to tunes or bands everyone loves but then go way beyond in a realm that demands new attention. ‘Madonna’ is a prime example of that. The track opens with a sample of ‘Baba O’Riley’, borrowing from the spirit of 1970s Pete Townshend before Jack Lowther’s voice and lyricism grab the mic back.

I’m not trying to say that Lowther and co are rivalling The Who, but the jump from one to the other as the fresh London band doesn’t just match up to the legacy they’re playing with that intro but can take it into a new direction without it feeling like a nostalgia trip. It’s a sign that this is a band to pay attention to, the sort of band that can and should rise through the ranks as new leaders of guitar music. 

Once again, though, the title of the EP comes into play with a broader issue with EPs in general. With three of these songs already released as singles and already on repeat in our playlists, the second half of the release does stall a little, as it quite literally has been done before by the band a few weeks or months ago. But that’s not necessarily a critique. It says a lot that in this musical age, dominated by quick hits and fast-passing phases, ‘Shotgun’ is still as thrillingly witty as ever, and the titular track still draws your finger to the volume-up button.

It’s more that now feels like the time that Flat Party could go all the way. The new songs ‘Circle’ and the epic ‘Paranoia/Delicate Dawn’ scream maturity and clarity of vision from Lawther’s lyricism to Rory O’Rouke’s exciting guitar lines, aided by producer Chris McCrory, who seems to have a magical touch of getting the best of new bands, as evidence by his works with The Joy Hotel’s debut.

The whole project is so good that simply, I want more songs. I want an album, but I’ll settle for this offering for now.