Album: Music For The People
Artist: The Enemy
Singles: No Time For Tears
The Enemy have decided to move up a lot since their debut album, We'll Live And Die In These Towns, a personal favourite of 2007. On this new album, they recapture the spirit of the first, while changing the songs into massive stadium anthems. So, let us begin with the most powerful song on the album:
Elephant Song
After one and a half minutes of symphonic noises, the song gives way to a brilliant, storming riff, before allowing Tom Clarke his first vocal of the album. This song is insanely good.
No Time For Tears
The end of Elephant Song segues into the piano intro to this song, the first single. Building up to powerful drums and an equally powerful guitar part, the song then allows Tom Clarke to scream out "The morning after, the revolution..." The longest track on the album (not counting the silence & hidden track after Silver Spoon) at five minutes, and it is also keeping up the brilliant sound of the album.
51st State
After a guitar intro, a piano part makes this song instantly catchy, before we go into the vocals and then hit one of the best choruses from The Enemy. And I don't even understand half the words he's saying. This, lengthwise, is in complete contrast to the previous track. This one barely hits two and a half minutes.
Sing When You're In Love
A slow yet anthemic song, the "We'll Live And Die In These Towns" of this album, I think. The chorus, consisting only of "sing when you're in love, sing when you're out of love" will have all the fans singing along. Should be the second single.
Last Goodbye
A five-minute song about suicide, with strings rounding off a new-sounding Enemy, as Tom Clarke croons "as I wave my last goodbye..." which genuinely proves they can capture emotions as well as talking about people losing their jobs and the state of England in general. In fact, they seem to have got rid of some of those songs so far...
Nation Of Checkout Girls
Maybe I spoke too soon. This sounds like a much heavier and faster version of their old B-side "Fear Killed The Youth Of Our Nation," and Tom Clarke is angrily spitting out the lyrics. While it is powerful, particularly the beat this song has, it is not up to the top standards of this album. Still a good song though.
Be Somebody
Oh, never mind, the album's brilliance has come back up again. This song has some interesting lyrics; "no one ever gives you anything for free, unless you start sleeping with the BBC," and talks about someone called Nigel, and how he gets a job in the city and how "tonight, he's gonna be somebody." Lyrics aside, this song should be a single, because the chorus sounds fantastic.
Don't Break The Red Tape
Although some think this sounds exactly like "London Calling," (which I can see why), I still think they have been fairly original here. Tom Clarke welcomes us to England, where "there is no fun," and "the dreams of children vanish in the dust." Ah, some more telling it like it is. Nevertheless, fans will undoubtably be singing along with the "try and stop us, try and stop us!" bit.
Keep Losing
Another slow song, with strings and all. It builds up to a good chorus, but unfortunately, I think this is the weakest of the ten tracks on here.
Silver Spoon
This epic song closes the album in a wonderful blend of piano and psychedelia, as the lyrics sound out, "I never had a silver spoon... to help me orchestrate this tune," a blatant stab at some parts of the music industry. But the closer rounds the album off fantastically.
Hidden Track
Sounds exactly like Let It Be. Still, it's important to say "goodnight, ladies and gentlemen" as Tom Clarke sings whilst playing a piano, while describing the happiness at the end of a gig.
In general, fantastic. This will be a favourite of 2009. Good thing they haven't blown their second album. One point off for some occasional dips. But still, wow.
For the record, their previous albums: We'll Live And Die In These Towns (9/10)
No comments:
Post a Comment