The Bosch: Hurry Up

“I bought my best friend a skateboard with the money that I set aside to ask you out.” So begins “This Town”, lead track from the Bosch’s new EP Hurry Up. If that is a situation that doesn’t sound particularly rife with tension, or any noticeable importance, that is because — like much of this record — it lacks both of those things. The Bosch are intent on reviving rock and roll by copying as much of it as possible. Lead singer Matt Harrison spends seven songs doing his best Lou Reed impression, and the music often sounds like a third-wave version of the Clash or the Replacements. Where the best of those that came before the Bosch sounded vital and earnest, Hurry Up is all posture. There are bottles thrown at cars, kids dancing in New York, condemnation of the “so-called rat race”, and not a note of it sounds honest. And sure, the Bosch could be crafting a rock and roll persona, but they may succeed even less at that than at being believable. If this is a persona — the leather-clad, Pabst-drinking rock band — then its a persona we’ve seen before, and it was kind of dull the first time. The Bosch are just plain trying too hard to cement an image and an attitude, or at least the perception of an attitude. They’d be better off spending their time crafting stronger rock songs. The horn section in closer “Brooklyn Kids” may be the small glimmer of hope for the band’s future to be found on Hurry Up, because the rest of this stuff is flat-out not working.