If you don't already know, I'm a massive fan of The Sunshine Underground's debut album Raise The Alarm. Somehow I missed all the hype surrounding the album's release and discovered it's (and the band's) greatness without all the hype clouding my ability to enjoy the record.
Four years on and finally we get chance to sample the Leeds band's new offering. If I had not heard the albums before I would tell you that this is their debut and Raise The Alarm is their second album. Nobody's Coming To Save You seems to be the album with twenty years worth of influences squeezed inside it. The Rapture, The Charlatans, Shed Seven, Happy Mondays, even Coldplay, OK maybe just 'Yellow', but even so the sound is back towards mainstream 90's indie rock. There's no problem with that and a lot of the time it works, Craig Wellington's got the vocals to carry it off and there are certainly more than just a few highlights on the album.
So what's the album like? It feels at times that there's a lot of blood, sweat and tears gone in to the album. There's more than that, there's real talent there but for some reason it hasn't quite clicked the same. The dancing beats don't meet the anthemic vocals at the same time and the energy is lost. That doesn't make it a bad album, in fact I've not listened to anything else in my car since it arrived. Lots of tracks stand out like 'Coming To Save You', 'We've Always Been Your Friends', 'In Your Arms', 'A Warning Sign' and 'The Messiah'. The question is how long will they stay on my iPod and will they reach my most played?
Not long enough and probably not.
Enjoy this alternative version of We've Always Been You're Friends kindly given the OK to post by their record label.
Bristol based band Call The Doctor have certainly been busy while I have been neglecting my blogging duties. Not only have they signed a distribution deal with Glasstone Records but today they have also managed to land themselves the title of BBC Radio 6 Music's unsigned band of the day. So it looks like guitarist Rob Hallworth's hard work promoting them is starting to pay off. If you managed to catch For Your Leisure getting some air play today you will be pleased to know it will be released as a free download. Not only that but they are touring, stopping off in Bristol, Bath, Frome, Coventry, Nuneaton, Chelmsford and Brixton.
