It seems like a dog's age since Stars of CCTV unleashed itself from it's humble and troubled beginnings in a taxi office turned recording studio. A modern day record that told the world that it was off to cause trouble and we should embrace it's loutish behaviour like the docile parents we were and treat it's pitiful attempts at love and fun as a rites of passage with the backdrop of loud and stupidly addictive indie rock. To me, it was one of the best debut albums of the past decade and even now, I still think of it as a benchmark for a debut album for a band that get's hyped to buggery by the NME.
Two years later, Hard-Fi's follow up album did everything possibly wrong to make sure it would also be a benchmark for how not to do a second album. Once Upon a Time in the West was basically more of the same, but lacked the surprises and staggering punch of it's predecessor. Although focused on an individual sound of basically watering down The Clash's back catalogue, it had too much filler compared to the single-heavy, almost pop album approach of CCTV, it reached it's peak around the second song and had possibly the most pretentious, mind-bongingly awful cover art ever made.
To many, this was the self-proclaimed Staines' finest death kneel and another example of bands hitting it big and then crashing and burning with the follow-up album. So, it comes as a somewhat strange situation where Hard-Fi's third album, the almost laughably pretentiously titled Killer Sounds finds itself on the shelves with no massive single, relatively no hype and no rubbish art work.
It's strange because after the way OUaTinW flopped so bad critically. the band could have upped sticks and tried something completely new and, to it's credit, Killer Sounds is nothing like it's forefathers. Gone are the social observations of a wider community for a return to some of CCTV's formula of your average loutish twenty-something, lovestruck and violent. The Ennio Morricone blended indie rock stylings have been replaced with Africana beats, synths and sampling.
it is, like Stars of CCTV, attempting to make an album of singles rather than tracks that would only work on an album with a unique theme. Stand out tracks Fire in the House, Give It Up, Bring It On and Excitement would have made ideal summer songs had they not been released so late in the season. They're stupidly catchy with some excellent drumming and basslines, short on meaningful lyrics and easy on the ears. In fact, minus the disappointing opener Good for Nothing, for the first four tracks, it's clear the album is a step-up and might be one of the surprises of the year.
Then it keeps going and somehow, beneath the party atmosphere and euphoria, it stagnates. It's difficult to tell when exactly the dreaded boredom takes hold and for brief blemishes, the album gets good again; like a friend buying you a Jägerbomb on a night out where the music has gone from good to cheese and the only thing you've pulled is a Chupa Chup from the urinal.
By the time the title tracks finishes the album (which oddly takes a step backwards in time and now feels incredibly out of place), it's only then you notice that the album feels like a jumbled mess with no structure. What initially sounded fun is now like trying to piece together what was so good before. And like all records, you'll give it another listen, embrace the good and await to get past the bad before finally selecting only three or four tracks for your iPod whilst forgetting the rest.
On the whole, Killer Sounds is ok. I feel as if I've given it a hard time when there is far worse out there. But, as embarrassing at it sounds, I liked Hard-Fi years ago and as mentioned before, I love Stars of CCTV. I was willing and hoping something great would come from four years of being out of the limelight but instead, Killer Sounds is the archetype of confusion being the byproduct of an album.
On occasion it works and when it does work, it works an absolute treat. As mentioned before, there's some very good tracks on here which rank up there with Stars of CCTV and I Shall Overcome and on the whole, it's a better record than OUaTinW.
But when it doesn't, it falters, it crashes, it burns and worse of all; it bores. It's worth a listen if you still like the band but, predictably, it pales in comparison to their debut and will only provide further ammunition for those who couldn't stand the band back in 2005 and wonder why this brand of 'Lads Rock' did so well in the first place.
6/10
H
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