(FALLOUT RECORDS)
Get the production on this EP! If The Holiday Plan are set to be consistently this awesome in their ways I�m hooked and booked already, as their opening track �Giving Up� progresses from its beautifully lilting intro melody into a shoutily orgasmic chorus. By God, this is Emo-pop and so it is and does bizarrely remind of Busted � but not for long. Because these guys mean what they�re playing and aren�t inclined to mime when ripping it up live� as anyone who has seen them support Thrice, Biffy Clyro and This Girl will inevitably testify.
�Everyday Is Winter� is more intense and Matt Rider�s vocals are yet more impassionately shredded, while the daydreamy lull ascertains the fact that guitarists Blue Quinn and Gary Jenkins are capable of holding back angst in all its flailing aggression now and again to instead harness it into a tune of beauty, thus proving that this quartet is leading by example as far as dynamic bands are going. �Everyday Is Winter� is an epic classic and succeeds in being both volatile and yet so sweet, before going into �Combat� which jaw-droppingly rouses that Christmas morning feeling of awe, reminding of the catchily hard-edged Foo Fighters.
Daniel Bodie gives the drums what for throughout this sublime excursion into angst heard at its most harmonious and accessible. This Holiday Plan, prepped with one-way tickets to widespread acclaim and beyond, are set to go further than most.
5/5 (Steve Rudd)
Release Date: October 20th 2003.