Victim Of A Casual Thing is the stunning debut from Birmingham 4-piece alternative rockers The Clause.
The amount of people that appear in my inbox telling me that this band they know “sound exactly like early Arctic Monkeys” is actually unbelievable (and pure hubris tbh because I have those early Arctic Monkeys tracks on my phone so I can make a direct comparison). But unlike almost all of those bands, there’s something about The Clause that at times actually does sound like early Arctic Monkeys and they didn’t even have to slide into my DMs for me to say that.
Victim Of A Casual Thing is pure, iconic indie. They’ve recognised the importance of those repetitive guitar rhythms to the heart of a track, the need for big choruses and – most importantly – the realisation that they really don’t need to over complicate it at all.
There are elements of bands such as Pulp and The Smiths in there too with use of an almost spoken voice at times and a subtle irony to the delivery. It’s a deeply enjoyable collection. If you’ve lamented the days of the guitar band being over The Clause are the band for you. It’s high energy, pure guitar rock from start to finish.
At times it’s so classic it’s almost as if you’ve heard it before. Like you want to sing along before you even know the words. The stand out track for me was Nothing’s As It Seems (we loved it so much we put it on our Take Five – five tracks you have to listen to this week). White Lifelines is another excellent track. The way they use the guitars and drums to drive this track forward and then just switch for the chorus is so effective. Elisha’s guitar opener is another highlight before it gives way to this funky, singalong tune. Honestly it probably should have been the album opener – but they can’t get everything right first time around.
There’s the odd forgettable track on there, but the strength of the other songs means it doesn’t matter. It’s one of the best indie rock debuts I’ve heard in a long time. Maybe even 20 years 
.