Let me admit it right off the bat. I’m friends with a member of this band. That’s how I found out about them. I really don’t care if you think I’m being biased, I like their sound, deal with it. Anyway.

No Love For Lexi are an alternative rock band hailing from Melbourne, Victoria, and when they cite hugely talented musicians like Paul Dempsey and Michael Stipe as influences, you know at the very least they’ve got great taste behind them.

Fortunately, you don’t need to revert to such loose threads to enjoy this band. Beginning with a recurring, light jazzy guitar lick, before you know it they’ve launched into the anthemic chorus.

“Stand by me, and not on your own.”

Musically it is your typical alt. rock style, but it’s quality stuff. When you’re a band this early in your career, I often feel it’s more important to find your feet and solidify yourselves before you move too far out. There’s nothing wrong with these songs, but the bands that ultimately stand tall above the pack are the ones that carve their own niche out. Fortunately I have enough confidence that these guys can do exactly that.

Vocalist Tom King doesn’t have a massive range, but he doesn’t need it. His voice lends itself well to the tone of the music, and it can hold when it needs to.

No Love For Lexi sound like they’re off to a solid start, and with this kind of material up for free on Unearthed, it can’t be long before they get a bit of airtime on Home & Hosed. They might not be experimental, they might not mess around with synths and tens of FX pedals, they might do things the traditional way, but sometimes it’s nice to have some quality respite from those bands trying to find the next cool thing to put in their music. No Love For Lexi keep it simple, whilst still showing talent in their songwriting and musicianship, and best of all, for their first batch of studio recorded tracks, these sound great. On par with other bands of their genre, and with the ability to take it further in the future, you should check them out. You won’t regret it.

Verdict: Positive.

Check out their MySpace page here.

Grab some free tracks from their triple j Unearthed page here.