Sheffield’s indie circuit rarely lacks young guitar bands chasing a quick adrenaline hit, which is exactly why The Kellows sound so refreshing right now. On their fifth single, ‘How Many Signs’, the young four-piece resist the obvious urge to sprint out of the gate with wall-to-wall noise. Instead, they let the tension simmer.
Clocking in at just under three minutes, the track opens with a deceptively stripped-back guitar figure that hangs in the air before gradually pulling the rest of the room into focus. Rather than relying on sheer speed or scrappy volume like some of their earlier material, frontman Will Harris and guitarist Evan Applegate lock into a sharper, more patient groove. Their guitar lines weave around each other with a nocturnal, slightly gritty edge. You can hear the DNA of their Steel City roots running through the arrangement, yet they manage to sidestep lazy Britpop cosplay in favour of something sleeker and far more contemporary.
What really sells the record is how smartly the rhythm section manages the lift. Bassist Charlie May and drummer Reuben Huddleston keep the verses tight, muscular, and coiled, holding back just enough space so that when the chorus finally breaks open, the payoff feels completely earned. There is real restraint in how they pace the track, letting the dynamics breathe rather than thrashing every bar at maximum volume.
Right at the centre of Dave Sanderson’s crisp, weighty production sits Harris’s vocal. He delivers the hook with a bruised, searching urgency: the sort of half-pleading, half-defiant cadence that turns a neat indie tune into something tailor-made for sticky-floored club nights and late-night singalongs. Lyrically, it taps into that restless, late-teenage headspace where every missed cue or mixed signal feels monumental, capturing the confusion without ever sounding overly dramatic.
By the final third, ‘How Many Signs’ swells into the kind of widescreen, arms-aloft closer that usually takes young bands a couple of EPs to figure out. The guitars chime louder, the drums hit harder, and the whole thing threatens to spill over the edges without ever losing its grip on the melody.
Most importantly, there is nothing over-polished or cynical about it. Even with its bigger, more ambitious scale, ‘How Many Signs’ still sounds like four mates crowded into a rehearsal room realizing they have stumbled onto a much higher gear, and having the nerve to ride it all the way to the fade-out. If this is the blueprint for what comes next, The Kellows won't be playing small rooms for much longer.
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