Review of Morning Parade Album by Morning Parade

Somewhere, at some point, bands seemed to change from doing anything they could to not be mentioned in the same breath as the stadium slaying mega acts. Take Nirvana as an example (no way are Morning Parade being compared to them by the way) but Nirvana knocked back support slots from Guns N Roses and U2 at the turn of the 90s to avoid being considered sell outs.

Morning Parade Morning Parade Album

Bands these days are not even afraid to admit that they harbour aspirations of selling out stadiums everywhere. They even tailor their sound right off the bat to help fast track themselves there within a couple albums (I'm thinking of you The Killers.)

This trend is most apparent in the deluge of UK indie bands that appear every year. You could picture them hanging out at some sort of indie recycling bank where they swap clich' ridden lyrics, echo/delay guitar parts ala the Edge and sterile production values.

This sound can heard upon listening to Harlow band Morning Parade's self-titled album. If this band could be described think of U2 skipping their first four albums and trying to make their Joshua Tree and go big straightaway. Although these days that seems all too feasible if you pull the right heart strings.

Blue Winter, the opening track, starts off with a promising crash bang wallop intro but slowly calms down into the sort indie sound you think you've heard before.
But it does have a redeeming feature halfway through which is some of the basslines in the verse. Think of Simple Minds bassist Derek Forbes on the Glasgow bands early new age gems. At over four minutes it isn't quite a wam bam thank you mam sort of opener. It's more of a scene setter for what is to follow.

Single Under the Stars, which was once played on Zane Lowe's Radio one has elements of U2's Unforgettable fire at the beginning as well as some neat synth work from Ben Giddings.

Two of the album's highlights are Close To Your Heart and Monday Morning.

The former has proper driving beat supporting singer Steve Sparrow demanding you 'Jump of the edge.' If anything has anthemia quality on this album, this is the track.

Half Litre Bottle contrasts with the previous track and slows everything down and could be the bands lighters/phones in the air moment if they make it to the stadiums they aspire to.

The problem with Morning Parade's album is that their sound has been described as 'highly marketable'. It is aiming directly at the mainstream who need future night outs sound tracked just for a couple hours. This means that a lot of the lovely piano work on Close To Your Heart would be lost on them. This also leads to the danger of talented musicianship, despite some sterile production, will be totally discarded.

3/5

Shaun Kelly


Site - http://www.morningparade.com

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