UK Pop-rock group Kyoto Drive released their ‘Mini Album’, The Approach just a few weeks ago. Cleverly acknowledging listeners attention spans, the work finds itself between an album and an EP, at seven tracks. Excluding opener Receive This Little Breath, each song is between three and four minutes long, begging to find some radio airplay. Recently signed to I Am Mighty Records, (you may remember I reviewed fellow roster members Lower Lands a few months ago. If you liked that record, stop reading this and go listen to Kyoto right now.) Kyoto Drive has released a notably ingratiating album loaded with hooks, but lacking in novelty and charisma.

Second track Holiday opens with a burst clear and crisp guitar lines before quieting down for a verse. Drums serve to build up for an accessible and easily resolving chorus. There’s nothing fans of Pop rock won’t like here, which is a bittersweet summary to the album; The Approach doesn’t offer pop rock music anything close to innovative, but the genre’s fans are likely to find their satiation nonetheless. 

Frighteningly reminiscent of A Day to Remember’s Homesick, third track So Much Alive’s chorus finds the group chanting “Whoa, we won’t go home, ‘till you’re singing it with me”. The band’s hopes are undoubtedly high for their upcoming UK summer tour with co-headliners Violet. The rest of the album follows as these tracks have, excluding album closer You Never Knew, in the form of a piano ballad (you totally didn’t see it coming.) 

Kyoto Drive have appealed to all our pop rock sensibilities on The Approach: uniformly embraced song structures, mildly distorted guitars, and melodramatic vocals. The Approach is one of the most poppy things you’ll hear this year. And if your summer playlist needs a little more of that, your search is over.