Galore

Barry Walsh was poised for something big to happen as part of Halifax’s Cool Blue Halo. But just as they stood at the threshold of success, he left to pursue his solo career under the guise of Galore. Their 2000 EP, Pilot Light, dumped his power-pop past and embraced all things glam, taking inspiration from the likes of Marc Bolan and T-Rex. In the past couple of years, Galore has expanded from being Walsh’s solo project to a full-blown band, thanks to a couple of ex-members of Conscience Pilate and Universal Honey. There’s not really any noticeable change in their sound with the addition of the three new members, although I’m sure their live performance has taken on a whole new direction. Parader starts off well, with the driving "Little Hit Parader,” and a whole bunch of other songs share a similar frenetic pace. The only problem is that some of the songs embrace all the clichés of the glam rock scene too wholeheartedly, making them sound so tongue-in-cheek that it’s hard to take them seriously. The worst offender, "Pocket Rocket,” is like sub-par Oasis, with horribly obvious lyrics. Still, there’s no denying that Walsh has done what he intended to do because there are songs on Parader that have authenticity on their side — they sound as if they were recorded back in the ’70s — and the majority of them are finely-written pop songs.