C+ 68%
Athlete
Beyond The Neighbourhood
Parlophone
Much in the vein of the band’s Britrock counterparts Keane and Coldplay, British indie quartet Athlete choose swooping, stretched out melodies and ambient riffs over fast-paced, catchy rock anthems. However this arrangement only works so well for a band who, despite beautiful harmonies, coast into a monotonous no-man’s land of placidity for sections of their new album Beyond The Neighbourhood.
Producing a strong beginning, Athlete set an optimist tone for the album that doesn’t get fully realized. At the get-go the dreamy instrumental “In Between 2 States” drifts into the next track “Hurricane,” a nostalgic ode for a generation growing up in the face of global warming: “All the places we grew up with / playing hide and seek / Disappearing while we sleep.” The sweet urgency of “Hurricane” is a definite high point in Beyond The Neighbourhood and is followed by “Tokyo,” a mellow rock song embellished with enough electronic blips and riffs to set it apart. Unfortunately as the album drives on, Athlete’s attempt to balance calm and bland fails. “Flying Over Bus Stops” tries to recapture the wistfulness of “Hurricane” but drawn-out vocals and repetitive spacey keyboards don’t let this song get off the ground until the final thirty seconds. Athlete make good use of their electronic layers, knowing when to saturate and when to underplay songs. But it’s not enough to pick up the dragging songwriting of tracks like “Second Hand Stores” and “In the Library,” which sound very similar to one another and so probably shouldn’t have been slated beside each other.
“Best Not To Think About It” saves Athlete some face. The song’s stripped-down sound lets the vocals and rhythm lead and proves that mellow doesn’t have to mean boring.
Though the disc verges on promising, Athlete’s inability to go beyond the formula and safe comforts of chilled-out rock stops the album from transporting its sound to new and exciting places.
—Adèle Barclay
C- 60%
The Go! Team
Proof of Youth
Secret City
The greatest disappointment of my university career has been the consistent refusal of the DJs at Alfies to play anything from The Go! Team’s debut album Thunder, Lightning Strike. Released in 2004, it sounds like dance-pop recorded in someone’s basement, but somehow it works. While The Go! Team’s new album Proof Of Youth still sounds lo-fi, it lacks the cheery pop sound that makes you want to get up and dance.
From the first song “Grip Like A Vice” it is clear The Go! Team is taking their sound in a new direction. Like many sophomore releases, the album experiments with a dissonant sound and harder-edged samples. Though the cheerleader-like vocals, upbeats and horns remain, too many elements are layered on top of each other making the songs feel heavy. The band returns to form in the middle of the album with songs like “Fake ID” and “Universal Speech,” but somehow the songs fail to be memorable. Even though the tracks sound like classic The Go! Team, they just don’t feature those hooks that make me want to get up and dance.
In experimenting with these new sounds, the band loses its joyful danceability. Instead, the album straddles awkwardly between something to be played in a club and something to be listened to at home, fitting into neither category.
—Tekla Nagel
All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s) in Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be contacted, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to journal_editors@ams.queensu.ca.