Grace Notes @ Snarkattack

(continuation of CD reviews from this post)

Future of the Left, Curses

The band Future of the Left is made up of some of the members of the now-defunct Welsh punk outfit mclusky. They loved Australia, and gigged here frequently. Sadly, I was not able to catch them in that incarnation, but when I heard that all of them were still musically active, I got excited.

Having said that, I’m a bit bummed to say that Curses is not quite as exciting as I hoped it would be. Sure, we’re graced with Falkous’ unmistakable vocals (seriously, the man could make joining the KKK sound fun and punchy…I don’t know if that’s a good thing!), and the guitar is nice and crunchy like mclusky’s but it’s different, probably because it’s got a bit more of a psychedelic rock edge to it (cheers to the keyboard). The drum tracks sound synthesised, too.

The album does open on a strong note with ‘the lord hates a coward’, and songs like ‘fingers become thumbs!’ or ‘kept by bees’ sound very pub-rock rollicking and cheery. ‘wrigley scott’ sounds a lot like old-school mclusky. The songs are also really short, just like good old-fashioned punk. My favourite song off the album is ‘real men hunt in packs’ which I believe was released as a single.

That’s cool though – of course they don’t need to sound like their previous incarnation. This album’s a bit more deliberate and produced.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs, It’s Blitz!

They’re definitely continuing the more mellow vibe that was displayed on their previous album Show Your Bones; personally I prefer their more raucous, punk sound as evident from their debut album.

Having said that, the opening track ‘Zero’ is pretty sexy. It’s a nice, slow lead-in to the album. This pretty much continues with the second track ‘Heads Will Roll’ but after that, I have to say, it’s a little lacking in energy (usually you wouldn’t be able to listen to one of their albums for some late-night quiet reflection time, but am finding this fine for just that). But…is it okay to suggest that the YYYs have got soft in their older age? Of course, that’s fine, but I don’t know that I really will enjoy this album as much as I did the previous two. It’s an interesting mood change for them.

Not sure if all copies have them but my copy was advertised as having bonus tracks – four of the album’s songs as acoustic versions. These are beautiful (I am partial to acoustic renditions, I confess).

I expected to get obsessed with this album and play the hell out of it, but it’s not going to happen.