Bravestar Records aren’t doing too badly for themselves at the moment. Namedropping with rising stars The Riverclub and My Awesome Compilation, the record label have yet another, if not best, trick up their sleeves in the form of Northampton quartet ‘One Toy Soldier’.
Citing bands such as Idlewild and At The Drive-In as their influences, One Toy Soldier have the very rare quality of being able to create original and likeable music with songs such as ‘The Desperate’ and ‘Your Loss’, leaving your repeat button pleading for a rest. They can create noisy yet elegant melodies, for example ‘This Soldier Is Not A Toy’ and angry yet touching ‘Force of Patience’. Opening track ‘Needles The Miracle Boy’ is easily the best song on this album, a beautifully energetic number which makes my top five songs of this year.
Their choice of artwork for the album is modest yet empowering, enough to make you want to buy it without even listening to a single song. With an enchanting mix of raw male lead vocals and refreshing female backing vocals, One Toy Soldier manage to keep their sound emphatically British and original. Their progressive indie style on songs such as ‘Pack It Up Kids’ leave you charged and thirsty for more, a mantra for this whole album. Honest enough to become your best friends yet brilliant enough to make the butterflies in your stomach flutter, One Toy Soldier are the band I choose for the words ‘ones to watch in 2006’.
 
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