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Review |
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Pretty much the whole of England have heard of The
Automatic and yes that includes parents who are
still stuck in that 60's time zone and also chavs
and this is mainly due to their biggest hit single
'Monster' being over played on the radio for many
months, don’t get me wrong the song is a classic
I loved it but tend to not listen to it much anymore
due to how over played the song has been. Well we
can now hopefully forget just how annoying that
'Monster' song became as The Automatic are back
with a brand new 12 track album called 'This Is
A Fix' and things couldn’t be more different
or better than they are now for The Automatic.
The band have gone through a few changes, if
you read my review for the bands new single 'Steve
McQueen' then you will already know about the
changes, if you didn’t then read on and
you will find out. The main change that happened
is the bands keyboardist Alex Pennie has left
the band to pursue in other projects and in his
replacement the band have taken on former Yourcodenameis:milo
frontman Paul Mullen, however Paul Mullen isn’t
a direct replacement for Alex Pennie as Mullen
has taken on duties as the bands rhythm guitarist,
with the band claiming that all four band members
will split the synths. Secondly is the bands sound,
it has changed and for the better thanks to Paul
Mullen joining the band and taking on guitar duties
they now have that dual guitar work going on which
adds extra punch to their sound and gives them
an all over rocky sound.
Only a few weeks ago The Automatic released their
new single 'Steve McQueen' the song was a great
welcome back for the band and proved that time
away from the music scene and a slight change
in the bands line up has done them well. 'Steve
McQueen' is an all out rocking song, the guitar
riffs are chunky and you can totally notice the
introduction of the second guitar and it fits
in perfectly. The poppyness of the previous singles
from The Automatic is no where to be seen here,
but saying that the song does still feature a
really huge catchy chorus however this time around
its pulled off in a really rocking way.
Not long after the single release of 'Steve McQueen',
The Automatic offered their fans a chance to download
the title track from their new album 'This Is
a Fix' many days before the albums release date
if you signed up to the mailing list on their
website, this was an opportunity that I jumped
at and I was pleased to hear that the song had
a similar feel to 'Steve McQueen' with the way
that the song was a straight out rock song with
no poppyness in sight.
I have now got my hands on the new album from
The Automatic and I have to say that it’s
a really good listen and is a pure rock album
from the start of the opening track 'Responsible
Citizen' right until the last bit of noise from
the finishing track 'Light Entertainment'.
'Responsible Citizen' is a great track to open
the album, straight away you will notice that
things are heavier this time around and also that
they have developed a more mature sound, the song
has a huge sing along fists in the air style chorus
that’s bound to become a fan favourite at
future gigs. The next track on the album is the
current single 'Steve McQueen' which quite simply
rocks.
The real fun starts when you get to track 3 and
4 which happens to be 'Accessories' and 'Magazines'
these two songs are my favourite songs on the
album but I can’t quite decide which song
I like the most and I don’t think I will
ever be able to make a final decision on which
one I like the most as both songs are enjoyable
for totally different reasons. 'Accessories' is
a really radio friendly song, it will quite possibly
become a future single for the band, the guitar
riffs are still quite chunky and the bass line
gives the song a bit of a bouncy feel, the vocals
are loud and clear and just after a few listens
you will find yourself singing along to the ever
so catchy chorus of "where do I connect with
this machine, we have become accessories".
'Magazines' is another track that has future single
written all over it, the song is really melodic
and has a bit of a soulful edge to it, the lyrics
are really catchy and once again you will find
yourself singing along in no time at all.
There are a lot more highlights on 'This Is a
Fix' such as 'Bad Guy' the song is really fast
and quite easy to get into. 'Secret Police' has
a bit of an old skool feel about it but happens
to be a really catchy track. The only song that
I can’t really get on with is 'Make The
Mistakes', the song see's the band take a more
chilled out approach kind of in the way of the
really laid back music that Feeder have been creating
on their last few albums, this kind of music did
nothing for me when Feeder was creating it and
does nothing for me now that The Automatic are
giving it a shot.
It’s always a hard challenge to come up
with album number 2 when your first album has
done so well, it’s even harder when most
of the success from your first album is down to
the fact that one of your singles caught on so
well that the whole country was loving it until
it made them sick, some bands in this situation
fall straight away and fade away as quick as they
became successful and some bands end up going
on to become one of the most successful bands
in their music genre, with 'This Is A Fix' The
Automatic have proved that album number 2 wasn’t
a problem for them and they have also proved that
they can change their sound for the better, a
lot of the 'Monster' loving fans are going to
drop off and not enjoy the new material but at
the same time their songs are going to appeal
to a whole new group of people and I think the
band deserve some kind of respect for coming back
different and stronger than ever.
4/5
Review by Trigger |
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| Band
Members |
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Rob - Vocals/Bass
Frost - Guitar/Vocals
Iwan - Drums/Falsetto
Paul - Guitar/Vocals |
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| Track
Listing |
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1. Responsible Citizen
2. Steve McQueen
3. Accessories
4. Magazines
5. This Ship
6. In The Mountains
7. This Is A Fix
8. Bad Guy
9. Sleepwalking
10. Secret Police
11. Make The Mistakes
12. Light Entertainment |
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| Band
Related Links |
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| Review
Score Code |
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- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
-
What Was That? |
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