|  The second album from The Automatic | | (As published for PushToFire.com)
A two-year silence could have easily rendered eclectic pop-rocksters
‘The Automatic’ as long gone and forgotten – but now the Welsh foursome
return with a certain zest, bringing a shed-load of addictively
memorable musical efforts with them.
Featuring twelve carefully considered songs of aural exquisiteness, the
follow-up to hugely successful debut ‘Not Accepted Anywhere’ shows a
much more serious side to the band, and one which clearly attempts to
divest itself of the juvenile air surrounding 2006 Summer smash single
“Monster”.
Vocal harmony-laden album opener “Responsible Citizen” has ‘Top 10’
written all over it, exhibiting a much more mature, almost
‘Offspring’-esque approach to song-writing.
Top tune “Accessories”, and title track “This Is A Fix” are both
particularly riffy, with the latter emulating a certain “we shall
remain a tight, cohesive musical unit throughout this awkwardly-timed
pre-chorus section” unification of ‘Placebo’ and ‘The Arctic Monkeys’.
Despite this commercialism, you can’t fault the boys for trying to make
their own mark on the well-established ‘boundary-pushing’ trend of
recent times.
Even with its Razorlight-style intro, the catchy “Magazines” summons
images of 80’s legend ‘Gary Numan’ locked in a studio with Finnish
rockers ‘The Rasmus’ with only one bag of Walkers Lites between them,
and a hand-written note stating “Make music now, or you won’t get
anymore Walkers Lites – Cheers, EMI”… Clearly incentive to make great
music!
A similarly quirky “In The Mountains”, although somewhat tedious after
a while, presents a searing synth melody appearing to have asserted
itself as the band’s new favoured direction.
Rounding off proceedings are “Secret Police” and “Make The Mistakes” –
a pair of harmonically diverse tracks which will see ‘Boomtown Rats’
and ‘Idlewild’ fans backtracking for a second listen.
Distinctly theirs in sound, ‘The Automatic’ offer an arguably riffier,
and overall more audibly defined release than previously seen. And with
latest single “Steve McQueen” currently swamping the airwaves, expect
an even longer shelf life than ever before.
Adam Scholey | |