With so much hype about bands such as Lower Than Atlantis (LTA), Twin Atlantic and We Are The Ocean to name just a few. Before I deemed these bands to be just boy bands with guitars, put together to become the rock girl’s version of JLS or The Wanted; purely through hearing the singles on the radio.
Being the open minded guy I like to think I am, I decided to give one of said bands a go, the radio chose for LTA (it was the first band I heard after the decision).
I chose LTA and brought their latest album ‘Changing Tune’, which I am pleased to say has surprised me in being quite good. It has its rock girl band moments, but its saved by many good tunes; if I do say so myself.
First track, “Prologue”, I thought was a weird way to start an album with acoustic guitars and delicate piano, but then there’s a feedback drop with pounding drums leading into crushing chorus and solos.
Second track “Love Someone Else”, is a distortion drenched ode to being yourself. With a punk-rock chorus and tad lighter verses, this is a lesson in the school of loud-quiet dynamics. Its nothing special verse-chorus-verse-chorus stuff.
“Go On Strike” is my favourite track off the album, a call to arms or a sympathy song bout being stuck in a job you hate; I’m not sure which one yet. Great lyrics like “these shelves wont stack themselves for, five an hour” and “aspirations galore, nothing to achieve I’ve go to leave, someone else can mop this floor”
“Scared Of The Dark” is the token quiet song about just that, being scared of the dark.
“Normally Strange” is much heavier than I thought the album would go, straying into metal territory. Poking fun at the cool kids is the theme of “Cool Kids”, but LTA are proud to revel in their so-called geeky-ness. Now that LTA have “made it big”, they kinda feel that they can lecture to their fans that they have made it and tell them that you achieve anything if you put your mind to it.
Can anyone else smell a rock girl band sentiment in these two songs or is it just me?
To be fair the album is fairly good, but on the down side it does has it’s sickly moments. Worth its price, yes, especially with its 17 tracks!