The Strange Death of Liberal England: Forward March
The Strange Death of Liberal England over do it on the grandeur
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Tuesday, 10, Jul 2007 01:55
Plastic Fantastic, released July 9th.
In a nutshell.
A poor man's Arcade Fire
What's it all about?
Forward March is the debut album from intriguing Portsmouth based quintet the Strange Death of Liberal England, and for the most part this eight-track ensemble is a cacophony comprising thumping funeral-esque piano playing and wailing vocals, with soaring guitar solos and empathy thrown in as a saving grace.
Who's it by
The Strange Death of Liberal England have the most pretentious and awful name in the history of modern music - with the possible exception of the Electric Light Orchestra, and by the sounds of them, this band could well have been a bunch of art students who failed miserably at all things paint related and decided to give music a go instead.
Given that their name is taken from the title of a book written in 1935 about the demise of the Liberal party in the years 1910 to 1914, it is unsurprising to find that TSDOLE are extremely English in both sound and eccentricity. They don't communicate with their audience vocally, preferring to use signs, and members of the band often switch instruments during a performance. Interesting, yes. Done in bid to deter from the fact that the music isn't quite up to scratch? Quite likely.
As an example.
"Don't you listen to a word that we say / The wind doesn't matter in the month of May / You said that I'm with social decay / Thanks but I think I'll go my own way." - Modern Folk Song
Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys
Pretty slim. These guys are much more likely to be nominees, not winners, and at more obscure awards rather than the celebratory events of the mainstream music calendar.
What the others say
"It's an odd affair, hideously overwrought and a bit shambolic, but in its own inimitable way, rather grand." - The Manchester Evening News
So is it any good?
Imagine if Coldplay, Arcade Fire, Clap Hands Say Yeah and U2 were thrown in a blender, whisked around violently for three minutes, and then their bloody remains were selotaped back together. That's roughly, metaphorically speaking, what has happened with TSDOLE.
They are grand, clunky, exuberant and most of all they are English. Comparisons with Arcade Fire are understandable, but perhaps not altogether justifiable. Album opener Modern Folk Song is rather beautiful and with its military drumming and harmonious singing is arguably the best of the eight tracks. Oh Solitude is catchy and upbeat, while A Day Another Day soars with its passion and intensity.
And then we get to An Old Fashioned War, and the package begins to unravel and tumble downhill. A plodding and frankly depressing song that leads into the equally unappealing Mozart On 33. Perhaps they are trying to be Radiohead circa 1997. Perhaps they didn't quite make it.
The military drumming resurfaces on I Saw Evil, but everything that is good here is all that is good on the first song, and is pleasant enough but nothing special. That clunky piano comes back too, on penultimate number God Damn Broke and Broken Hearted, which is overly dramatic and one that may become friends with the skip button on your CD player.
And so we come to the last song, the ridiculously long-titled Summer Gave us Sweets But Autumn Wrought Division. Thankfully the piano is gentler, but it's an instrumental song, and just feels like an intro that lasts an age and then splutters and dies before it gets to somewhere interesting.
This album will not present you with anything that will kick open the door to the living room of your heart, grab the comfy armchair in the corner and proclaim that it will never leave. You might find something that you can whistle while you're in the shower though.
5/10
Laura Topp