Guilty pleasures. A pesky subject I briefly covered in my Linkin Park review from a couple years ago. Yes, the point still stands that guilty pleasures are redundant as music is a subjective form of art and entertainment, but the looks I get when I tell people that I like Fightstar can easily fit this category.
You know, Fightstar? The post-hardcore band ex-Busted member Charlie Simpson formed to largely destroy his ties to pop-rock? They had three really good albums? A ton of b-sides and covers that were largely very good? Decent live-show? He had the same eyebrows that looked that two caterpillars desperately attempting to rest above his ever moving eye sockets...
Of course you don't. Because you either completely forgot about Simpson up until the creation of 'supergroup' (in the loosest term possible) McBusted where he was the only member of either group not to desperately clench for a last chance at fame and fortune for a fanbase that has either grown up or moved on to One Direction.
Or you managed to hear his solo material from three years ago with relatively, biggish hit Parachutes from debut album Young Pilgrim which sounded like the umpteenth time of someone trying to emulate Mumford & Sons to predictably average results.
Simpson's second album Long Road Home is, unfortunately for me; more of the same, but a tad more accessible and easy on the ears.
Lyrically; the album is practically identical and a largely generic batch of songs consisting of melancholy and unrequited love, never attempting to branch out out of the mould for fear of confusing the listener. Musically; again, it's soft acoustic pop with barely any unique instrumentation or song structures.
On the plus side; the album has a few more memorable tracks than Young Pilgrim which seemed to rely on two songs as support (Parachutes and I Need a Friend Tonight) for ten uninteresting filler tracks. Opener title-track Long Road Home is a jaunty baroque pop song, whilst nothing new to the genre, is fresh for Simpson and sets up the album as something potentially good.
Would You Love Me Less, whilst musically engaging and entertaining, is let down by a weak mix and weaker vocal performance, which is a shame because the music itself is it reminds me a stripped back, shorter Mono from Fightstar. Still Young serves as a decent radio-friendly-unit-shifter with a catchy final minute making the song far more than the averageness before.
Largely though; Long Road Home is a decent but forgettable follow-up album. If you liked Young Pilgrim and the thought of another year of Mumford & Sons not delivering more generic acoustic dross upsets you, then you can do worse.
5/10
H
@Retcon_Nation
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