Raised By Animals are one of those bands that remind you of someone but no matter how hard you try you can't quite pin down who. There's a touch of Coffee& TV era Blur in there somewhere, though that's a comparison that probably wouldn't sit well with the band, who instead cite Bowie, Buckley, Connick and Cornell as their inspirations.
The fact that i don't necessarily agree with those artists as references for the music on this CD is probably a good thing - it implies that the band have taken their influences, listened to them carefully for inspiration and then completely ignored them in favour of their own sound. Quite right too.
In fact, the three songs included here, Talkin' Circle, You Said... and Firefly are impressively original, with nary a hint of power chord nor a folksy strum (the prerequisites of a modern demo it would seem).
Talkin' Circles is the closest the CD ever comes to a rock song, but it's the kind of rock song that Graham Coxon would like to play on. It also features a vocal straight out of The Christians, so as you can imagine the term 'rock' isn't really all that suitable.
Next, You Said... completely belies expectations by sounding like an old jazz standard sellotaped to a chorus delivered by a welsh vocal harmony group. And it's absolutely ace. Finally, Firefly is a genuinely lovely acoustic ballad and likely to join the few demos that receive repeated plays in the Playmusic office.
For the sheer originality of this CD and the excellent quality of its musicianship, Raised By Animals really do deserve that elusive contract. On paper, the band probably sound quite quirky. Be assured that on record they sound like a band who should be taken very seriously indeed. A great CD.
Play Music magazine, Feb 2004