The Babies - Cry Along With the Babies

Cry Along With the Babies is not a new full-length album but a short, six-song EP of lo-fi home recordings. The songs are simple and the result is a slightly dull, albeit charming, bridge for their next album. Throughout, the guitars sound like they're being played through treacle, they're sticky and warm with little attention given to the levels or the accuracy of playing. Vocals are swapped between male and female lending them a Moldy Peaches style.

They never really reach the heights of that comparison, however. 'Trouble' and 'That Boy' contain the best hooks but the recording quality of even these two tracks leaves the feeling that these could have been made by anyone in a bedroom with bog-standard equipment. 'Bad Mama' has a bruising temper and an almost Black Keys-esque swagger but can't go far enough in this limited recording. 'Big Mercedes' nudges towards a sweet song of loss but is lazy in structure and it never quite flows right.

The charm of their self-titled debut is at the heart of this EP but the clarity found on The Babies is lacking here. What was organised lo-fi there is a slack demo attitude here. This is more like a retrospective look at how The Babies probably began.