Basically,
the production is very similar – that they ditched Godrich might not
have been the best idea, as he would have no doubt canned
the distorted vocals, tinny guitars and the other trademarks
of the first album, and in doing so created an album that
doesn’t sound like an album of off-cuts from the first – As
this one does. Maybe they’re just not trying to pretend
that they’re doing anything different – if they
didn’t think they were capable of creating a legitimate
new sound, its fair enough, but you just can’t help
but feel a little disappointed. There are a few fresh ideas
littered throughout the album in attempt to make sure that
the whole thing doesn’t sound too stale, but it does
seem a bit unfortunate that there are no real standout tracks
either, as in the electrifying singles from ‘Is This
It’. It’s really just a couple of chunks here
and there that offer the most – there’s a nice
mood on ‘Automatic Stop’ alongside the lead single ‘12:51’ – making
up the middle ‘chunk’, and whilst partsof ‘You
Talk Way Too Much’ and ‘Between Love and Hate’ are
okay, nothing much really happens until the last few tracks,
kicked off with the choppy ‘The Way It Is’.
Casablacas’ passionate-yet-slack vocals, set alongside
the repetitive guitar lines, just don’t have the same
impact second time around - the vocals are starting to sound
whiny, and the guitars are just sounding unimaginative. So
apologies to those who love the thought of one musical idea,
repeated until people ‘get it’, but lets be honest:
it really doesn’t leave much for secondary listening.
The business might owe them quite a lot for ushering in the
new wave of cool rock bands, but unfortunately they’ve
just shot themselves in the foot by not attempting anything
new. I’ll pose it as a question - What would you really
expect from a truly ‘cool’ band: a) completely
changing their style, thus ditching their hoards of fans
so that it takes everyone six months to catch up with whatever
they’re going on about, or b) continue doing the same
thing? People might have complained at Radiohead for going
a bit wacky after OK Computer, but if the alternative is
just to end up at the arse end of interesting, the choice
really isn’t too tough.
5.6
Mark Danson
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