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Athlete - Black Swan

8/24/2009

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Picture
Black Swan
Athlete
August 24, 2008
Polydor/Fiction

Athlete started out strong with their first album “Vehicles & Animals” and “Tourist” also was a pretty strong album, yet not as balanced as the debut. On both albums you felt like this band was on to something but not able to reach to the sky completely.

Their third album “Beyond The Neighbourhood”, frankly, was a big disappointment. Decent songs but it just didn’t really work out. There’s a new album now that starts off with a jumpy, radio-friendly (electro)-rocker Superhuman Touch which is a little Killers-esque, just rounder and more melodic. It’s a strong track that might well draw some attention to this new album.

Unlike the previous albums, “Black Swan” seems to be a little more balanced. It’s not strong enough to help Athlete join the ranks of bands like Feeder, Idlewild, Kaiser Chiefs and other indie/britpop bands like that, but I dare to make a statement that it may rival the band’s debut for their best album.

The album isn’t as over-ambitious as “Tourist” and not so monotonous as “Beyond The Neighbourhood”. There’s a good mix between jumpy, exciting power songs and sober songs to listen to. Aside from the album opener this album features gems like Love Come Rescue, The Unknown, Rubik’s Cube and the breezy Wild Wolves.

“Black Swan” is an album worthy of the band’s status and it feels right. The songs are pleasant to listen to, the arrangements are good and there’s a good balance between tempo, intensity and sentiment. After the impressive debut album, Athlete hasn’t been able to release a steady album. Some songs on the previous two albums were very good, but as an album these releases couldn’t convince. I am glad to say that with “Black Swan”, Athlete reclaims its place among the interesting indie/britpop bands and this album is a great place to start taking steps forward again. Athlete, it is good to have you back!

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Anchor & Braille - Felt

8/4/2009

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Picture
Felt
Anchor & Braille
August 4, 2009
Wood Water

Brainchild of Anberlin’s Stephen Christian, Anchor & Braille is a collaboration with Copeland’s Aaron Marsh and the first album is called “Felt”. The songs are written by Christian who used songs Anberlin couldn’t use and worked them out for this side project.

When you listen to the album you can hear some parallels to Anberlin in the build up of some of the songs, but you can also immediately hear why these songs aren’t suited for Anberlin’s catalogue. The sound of the songs is totally different. The album opens with Rust which sounds like a modern and current sounding incarnation of The Police.

All through the album you can hear some influences from the late sixties/early seventies and at times even a little new wave influences seep in. The album contains primarily mid-tempo songs, featuring highlights such as the etherical Summer Tongue and the intriguing Sleep. When We Die. Also deserving a mention is the stripped down Sing Out which is actually quite catchy if you listen to it.

“Felt” is an interesting album and it shows the strength of Christian as a songwriter. But the real strength of the album is that the songs have the ability to speak for themselves. There are no real tearjerkers or epic anthems on this album. The power of this album is more subtle. The rich arrangements and strong performance of the songs are impressive. “Felt” is not going to be a huge success but it sure is an album of high quality.

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    gogonutz

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