I am not bad, usually, at recalling when an EP came out. But there was something on the press release that accompanied the second record from Departed which took me by surprise. “We’ve been working hard towards a follow up release to our debut EP. Due to being very active on the live scene it’s taken a bit longer than we hoped but we are extremely proud of this EP and can’t wait for everyone to hear it”. So says Singer Mark Pascall. He’s not wrong, either.
It turns out I reviewed that thing in the summer of 2016, so yeah, Departed needed to return.
Lucky then, that “Tides” is worth the wait.
Pascall was once in the brilliant Empire Of Fools, and once again he’s joined by Ben Brookland who was in The Treatment back in the day, and what there was to love about the debut is bang here too.
That was a pretty raucous hard rocker, the five songs on “Tides” (which are in and out inside 20 minutes) are much the same – although not without the odd twist and turn.
“Come On” the opener, has a Stones like riff, and you think you have a handle on them. It does its thing, it is confident and classy, and wouldn’t actually be out of place on a Thunder record – you can see this on “Backstreet Symphony” pretty simply.
The first clue they’ve taken “Tides” into different waters comes with “Soul Shaker” which has a sort of natural soul about it. An exuberance infuses “All The Way” however, which is much less laid back than many here.
“Let Her Down Easy” shows their roots are in the south west a little more. The harmonies are those of a slower pace of life, and there’s a bluesy groove to boot, while the last one being called “Remedy” might be something of a clue. If it isn’t the slide guitar is. It is relaxed, its chilled out. The waves lap at your feet, and the thing sounds like The Black Crowes.
“Some say the world is changing, some say the world is fine” sings Pascall here and the inference is that they’ll ride out whatever comes. In a way, that’s like the music they play too. Hard rock, like the tides, ebbs and flows, but is always there.
It always will be too, so long as there are bands like Departed.
Rating 8/10
