I've heard it said that true Radiohead fans hate Muse, perceiving them to be nothing more than Radiohead imitators. This is nonsense. Certainly, Muse picked up where Radiohead left off when Thom Yorke disappeared up his own posterior, but Muse have very much their own sound. Nevertheless, a decade on from OK Computer, comparison to Radiohead remains a touchstone of musical quality. And now the first album from Bournemouth band Air Traffic, Fractured Life, received the following glowing review in The Sunday Times:This young quartet from Bournemouth are so much more musically savvy than nearly all the new crop of guitar bands that it will probably take the mad-for-it rock crowd a while to catch up with them. When they do, they will find this debut to be a richly coloured sequence of songs, comparable in scope and intensity to mid-1990s Radiohead. Beginning with a couple of hormonally overloaded rockers, Just Abuse Me and Charlotte, it shifts gears over the next nine tracks as vocalist/keyboard-player Chris Wall refracts his dark side through the hauntingly beautiful Empty Space, eventually regaining his equilibrium on Your Fractured Life. Performed with precision, conviction and, best of all, a poppy conciseness, this album is that often mentioned, rarely sighted thing: an emotional rollercoaster ride. Get on it.
But I'm not going to buy the album purely on the basis of one good tune that I've heard, and a review which compares them to Radiohead.
Am I?
Why not? Art involves risk - making it and consuming it. But the rewards can be great. Go for it, Gordon.
ReplyDeleteYou're right Neil. However, the consequences can sometimes be dire: I've got a copy of 'Parachutes', Coldplay's first album, in one of my draws.
ReplyDelete'draws' ??? Shame on you! And as for having a copy of a Coldplay album well really. Still, it really could be worse - could be Simply Red.
ReplyDeleteSurely it's time for a light-fingered moment, a bit of shoplifting, Pikey style. The challenge is to use your knowledge of lepton, bunsen and nuclear spin to steal the CD without being nabbed by the Old Bill.
ReplyDeletealso if you don't like it, you could return it, saying "sorry, I stole this earlier, but it's shit, you can keep it. Have you got any Travis?"
ReplyDeleteI'm an extremely rich and famous international author-academic; I can't afford to risk my reputation like that.
ReplyDeleteThey're popular in the Netherlands, apparently. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DNIP3DK_9k
ReplyDeleteNot that I speak Dutch or anything.
Apparently, Doug, in the Netherlands they have to paint their houses with up-and-down brush strokes only.
ReplyDeletei think you'll find if you use the word 'Foucault' at some point, the act of chav-like shop-lifting miraculously becomes an act of transgressive extra-liminality, and that's okay.
ReplyDeleteIt's all Foucault, baby.