The Good …
Delphic are white hot right now. Their debut album has gone straight into the UK top 10, and critics have called it a contender for best debut album of 2010. They are from Manchester, birthplace of so much that has been exciting in UK rock music, from punk (The Fall, The Buzzcocks) to post punk (Joy Division, New Order, The Smiths) to the dance influenced rock (Happy Mondays, Inspiral Carpets, The Stone Roses) that emerged in the late 80s and was to inspire another Manchester band, Oasis.
The album, Acolyte, sees the band show off some of the range of their musical influences. In the end its diversity prevents it from really capturing the mood of the time like some of the bands mentioned above; but at its best it comes very close. The two outstanding songs are Counterpoint – the band’s first single, a high energy track with a thrilling chord progression – and Halcyon, a flowing ambient track with the sort of chorus that seeps into your consciousness (“Give me something I can believe in. Aah, It’s in your hands”). On tracks like these, which have been described as indie dance, they bring together electronic and indie rock influences in a way that feels organic and contemporary, and recognisably rooted in Manchester’s musical culture.
Buy Acolyte on Amazon UK (also available as an import on Amazon.com from February 2nd)
The Bad …
On the title track of The Editors third album, In This Light & On This Evening, released late last year, Tom Smith intones the words “in this light and on this evening, London’s become the most beautiful thing I’ve seen”. It’s almost as if the band from Birmingham, UK are challenging us. If they can see beauty in a London landscape devoid of colour, can we find the beauty that lies in their dark industrial sound ?
The biggest problem that they have is that the gloomy philosophical atmosphere that they’re trying to create has been done before, and to more spine chilling effect, by Joy Division. The fact that Tom Smith’s deep voice sounds very similar to Ian Curtis makes such comparisons inevitable. The Editors have attempted a departure from their earlier work by using synths instead of guitars to set the beat, but in so doing haven’t been able to create anything so memorable as Munich, their 2005 single with its attention grabbing guitar riff. The overall effect is colourless, joyless and humourless, the songs are overlong and dreary, and Tom Smith’s expressionless monotone begins to grate after a while. You’ll probably have to be a dedicated Goth to find the beauty in this.
Buy In This Light & On This Evening on Amazon
And the Outlandish …
Featuring goofy dancing by two young men in yellow shellsuits, some wacky lyrics, and some very retro 1980s production on the synthpop song and on the video. But is it for real, or is it a spoof ? The video appeared last year and got a bit of attention, but nobody has yet dug up any information to speak of about the band. The one fact that we’ve been given is that the song was released in 1987, but unless evidence of this appears it seems rather more likely that the whole thing was put together in 2009 as a joke.
