Credit: Found On Internet

Rosie & The Goldbug’s rise from glossy but ultimately soulless battle of the band affairs to what they are today, a precise crossbow bolt of killer cabaret glitz, has re-affirmed at least one thing in Music Towers mind. That sometimes at least, acts of worth rise to the top.

While they might no go out of their way to disguise their influences, neither do they mindlessly ape them, like the musical equivalent of those mimes who follow you down Parisian boulevards in the hope of getting a cheap laugh and a few Euros out of the tourists. Whereas The Dresden Dolls have gothic greasepaint, Rosie & The Goldbug have ethereal glitter. The piano-pounding pump of ‘War Of The Roses (Because You Said So)’ shares the same sense of thunder as the Boston-duo, but Rosie Vanier’s vocals are delivered with an edge of breathless, compared to Amanda Palmer’s booming aplomb.

Staccato music-hall stomp of ‘Butterfly’ has some more than a handful of trademark Kate Bush uh-huh-ha’s as vocal hooks – indeed, much of the record has shades of her introspective melodies, moderated by an occasional Dragonette-esque electro-buzz that’s in tracks like ‘Heartbreak’ and ‘Strange Girl’. It’s not all introspection either – the trio takes steps towards something more grandiose, more epic with ‘Feeling’ - like Muse before Matt Bellamy’s space-rock addiction kicked in.

The video for ‘Lover’:

But the closer Rosie & The Goldbug veer to current Muse-territory, the more forced they start to sound. They just don’t have the teeth for it - ‘Contain You’ is all toothless, gummy guitars, like a power ballad theme song to some horrendous 80s empowerment movie. That and the hilarious “You said I’M YOUR BITCH!” line in ‘War Of The Roses’. How we missed something so comedic on the War Of The Roses EP that came out earlier this year, we don’t know.

Rosie & The Goldbug’s self-titled debut album is out now on Lover Records. Click here for more information.