Hadouken!: For The Masses
Hadouken!: For The Masses
Friday, 22, Jan 2010 09:42
Surface Noise, January 25th.
What's it all about?
The second album by dance-punk five-piece Hadouken!, For the Masses was recorded in Holland with drum and bass producers NOISIA. The album was prefaced by single Turn the Lights Out in November.
Who's it by?
Hadouken" are a dance-punk band from London. They originally formed in Leeds after James Smith and Daniel Rice met at Leeds University. It was here they began their own record label, Surface Noise Records.
Their debut album was called Music for an Accelerated Culture, and they have also released a 12-track EP mixtape called Not Here to Please You.
For the Masses seems to have less commercial appeal than some of the songs on Music for an Accelerated Culture. For example, their debut album featured more interesting and political songs such as Liquid Lives which is about the drinking culture in Britain, and pop/funk songs such as That Boy, That Girl. Although this album would be well suited to a nightclub atmosphere, I don't see it hitting the charts just yet.
As an example.
"You can bang the drum/Bring it on/We will play along."
What the others say
"Leeds five-piece Hadouken!'s second release, For the Masses, is an inscrutable hybrid of grime and dance punk that relieves both genres of all redeeming qualities, leaving behind remnants that sound like a modern, British version of nu metal. Aggressively juvenile, Hadouken!'s music sounds like the type of song that would play during a chase scene in a Guy Ritchie movie, only much worse." - Prefixmag.com
"On its own terms, For The Masses is a success, delivering the 'hard and fast' album the band wanted to create. Where it falls down, however, is in the lack of dynamics and the lack of a stand out anthem, even to a That Boy That Girl level." - The Music Fix
So is it any good?
For The Masses contains a mixture of grime and dance punk but also faint elements of drum and bass, rock, and third-rate rap. This is likely to be popular amongst teenage punk-rock and grime fans caught in the grip of juvenile angst, but it's definitely undeserving of a chart hit among adults.
The album's also not as interesting in terms of musical and lyrical quality as their debut Music for an Accelerated Culture which contained more commercially accessible and meaningful songs. The lyrics are quite often incomprehensible, and when they are audible, they are hardly earth-shattering. The only thing that compensates for the poor content of the album is its upbeat rhythm and funky beats which it maintains all the way through.
For the most part, this album doesn't have bestseller written all over it, but to describe it as disappointing would be erroneous. If the aim of the game was to create an experimental collection of songs which is mainly going to be marketed at school kids, and played as background noise in a few niche underground clubs, then this album is perfect. Beyond that, it is unlikely to impress, and I certainly wouldn't tout it as a success just yet.
4/10
Janine Griffiths