There seems to be a lot of artists recently that channel the spirit of 80’s indie guitar in their sound, with clear influences from the likes of The Smiths, The Cure and The Stone Roses.

Jennie Vee is no different, with latest EP title track ‘Die Alone’ channeling the 80’s indie guitar sound with vocals that ring with a tone of dissatisfaction and disillusionment. So, this track is immersed fully in the feel of 80’s indie in every possible sense. So what could Vee possibly offer here that is new?

The answer, simply, is nothing. But it’s the best kind of nothing. Music has a horrible habit of offering the same things we’ve heard before as something new, and this is the case with a lot of indie bands who try to take an old sound and make it contemporary. Vee, however, hasn’t taken that tact. The track is so heavily indebted to the 80s indie scene that Vee herself offers it more as an homage or remastered rendition of that sound.

The track’s opening verse is the most obvious pointer of this, with the song’s opening couplet deliberately being a reworking of the opening of The Cure’s ‘100 Years’. Combine that with the blatent Cure-esque guitars and it becomes obvious that this is an homage.

What’s the best thing you can do when contemporary indie borrows from 80’s indie, and a lot of the world has a soft spot for ‘vintage’ things? Make your track a deliberate homage to that time, with sounds that feel like someone has remastered and remixed a Cure instrumental. It’s a song that wouldn’t ever exist with 80s indie, and the best song The Cure have made in two decades.

8/10