Five months ago, all four members of Viola Beach were killed when their car plunged into a canal in Sweden. Since then, Coldplay have paid tribute to the band, performing one of their songs at Glastonbury, hinting at what the future might have held. Certainly the Warrington group’s first and only album reveals they were tailor-made for festivals. Pitched somewhere between Arctic Monkeys and the Kooks, Viola Beach is impish and effervescent, albeit short on qualities particular to the band. Still, while their lyrics could be fine-tuned (Boys That Sing rhymes “wino” with “rhino”), it’s hard not to warm to a quartet whose obvious pleasure at being in a group pervades every adrenaline-charged note.
