Film School - Hideout, Album Review

Film School
Hideout
Album Review

Film School are a promising emerging band from San Francisco and convey the same paranoid, twitchy spirit that Radiohead did with OK Computer, more successfully than most bands have mustered.

That's not to say that Hideout contains as many brilliant and seminal moments as Thom Yorke et al's masterwork, if indeed it contains any; rather it expertly creates the same chilling ambience.

And therein lies the problem; there are too few memorable songs on this album. For every darkly melodic moment 'Dear Me', there is a moment of pure filler, like the nondescript noise of 'Meanmedian Mode'.

Similarly, 'Capitalized I' swoons and broods in all the right places but has little in the way of a tune. Which is a shame because occasionally they can hone their brow-beating tendencies into truly brilliant songs; 'What I Meant to Say' combines a memorable melody with heavy guitars and 'Compare' boasts exemplary harmonies and spindly, spider-web guitars.

If they can maintain consistently brilliant songs over an entire album then they will be a force to be reckoned with, but for now the skip button will be your best friend when listening to Film School's latest album.

Ben Davis