Kings of Leon & Two Door Cinema Club

I will usually just be reviewing one album in this post however as a special Brucie bonus this review features two albums. I had initially intended on reviewing the new Kings of Leon album but for the reasons that will become evident in the short review .

Kings of Leon ‘Come Around Sundown.’ 2/10

This album is predictable at every turn and has, at every opportunity to do something of interest instead opted for something monotonous and mediocre. Prior to writing this review I was sort of prepared to compare KOL to U2 in that they have a knack of producing great singles that long outlive their albums. But that would be doing U2 a disservice as this album contains no stadium filling cock rock singles or in fact anything remarkable at all. A detailed analysis would follow but I don’t want to listen through enough times to be able to produce more words than this on the subject.
Stand Out Tracks: There really aren’t any.
Listen if you like: Feeling bored and numb. (The emotions not the bands)

Two Door Cinema Club ‘Tourist History’ 7/10

Two Door Cinema Club are one of them Welsh bands that seem to have gotten an awful lot of great pre-release press. There first LP ‘Tourist History’ is out next week but thanks to the wonders of the internet here is my musings on it.

The Cinema Club album plays host to angular guitar sounds, yelped verses and electric keys with the polished and produced choruses that have been so in vogue the past eighteen months. Unsure what I mean? Think Friendly Fires, Foals et al. Something of the pop sensibilities of the British or more specifically Welsh ‘Emo’ scene have also made their way on to the record the first example being the chorus and middle eight on ‘come back home’ which on first listen reminded me of the high production values of fellow sons of Wales’ Kids in Glass Houses.
Do you want it, do you want it, do you want it, do you want it all irritates until the refrain drops away to reveal some lovely electronic sounds that wouldn’t seem out of place on a Nintendo shooter circa 1996. (Did anyone here have a SNES scope? If so you were lucky bastards.) Drum performances are something that are rarely talked about and rightly so in the case of most modern rock and indie efforts. However, increasingly more innovative drum patterns have started to find their place in the indie rock scene. Bloc Party, Arctic Monkeys and Vampire Weekend are all noticeable big hitters in this field. Whilst Two Door Cinema club don’t do anything outstanding in its originality they haven’t settled for the simplest of options and this occasionally catches your ear. (This is the Life, I Can Talk, Undercover Martyn.)

At the albums midpoint is the sample driven a cappella introduction of ‘I Can Talk’. Which is a song that screams “I AM THE SINGLE” being both a record that you can sing and dance to, much to the annoyance of those on the train where this review was written.

There are a couple of false starters buried in the album one example being ‘Undercover Martyn’ which starts as though it is going to try to hit some delicate notes but then gives up on that idea in pursuit of a rhythm led poptastic chorus before giving up on that and playing with the laser gun effects on the keyboard.

On the whole most tracks seem to be thirty seconds too long insisting on the repetition of choruses that aren’t always strong enough to survive sustained scrutiny. But that isn’t to say that there isn’t plenty to like. Not much of it is original but the majority of it plays well and whilst I’m sure Two Door Cinema Club won’t be changing the course of music they fit nicely into what is happening around them at the moment.
Listen If you like: Friendly Fires, The Sunshine Underground, Owl City, The Departure, The Rapture and Cow Bells (the instrument not the band)
Stand Out Tracks: I Can Talk, Come Back Home, Do You Want it All.