Lostprophets: The Betrayed
Lostprophets: The Betrayed
Also In The News
|
They're one of the hottest bands out at the moment. It's their long-awaited second album. You can taste the popularity it'll have. |  |
Friday, 15, Jan 2010 02:56
Visible Noise, out January 15th.
What's it all about?
Album four from South Wales rock quintet Lostprophets, The Betrayed arrives after a gestation period of nearly three years, with an entire album's worth of material recorded with Goldfinger frontman scrapped, LA sessions coming to nothing and only a return to Wales for self-produced sessions finally begetting an LP.
Who's it by?
Former in Pontypridd in 1997, Lostprophets have released three albums, scored two top ten hits, won one NME award and four Kerrang! awards and been through three different drummers - former Beat Union stickman Luke Johnson is the latest to join founder members Ian Watkins (vocals), Lee Gaze (lead guitar) and Mike Lewis (rhythm guitar) as well as bassist Stuart Richardson and synth/turntablist Jamie Oliver.
As an example...
"Everywhere that I go misery will follow/And it won't let me go."
What the others say
"Whether a fanbase reared on moshpit anthems is ready for such artful desolation remains to be seen, but as an exercise in skin-shedding and score-settling, The Betrayed is brutally effective." - Paul Brannigan, Q
"With no outside influences to force these leek-lovin' lads' songwriting hand, they've delivered an album that, although not as polished as previous efforts (but that's part of the charm) is purely Lostprophets and the real sound of progress for sure." - Ronnie Kerswell-O'Hara, Rock Sound
So is it any good?
The promotional bumph might bill The Betrayed as Lostprophets' "love letter to being home" and there's evidence of the importance of location for the band in the stupendously catchy single Where We Belong and the brooding piano cascade of A Better Nothing. But just as central to the album's sense of identity seems a newfound defiance and a confidence that comes with a career now well into its second decade. Bassist Stuart Richardson's production is industrial and expansive for opener - and mission statement - If It Wasn't For Hate We'd Be Dead By Now and Ian Watkins' fevered loud-hailer vocals throughout smack of a band unbowed by standing on the edge of implosion. Next Stop Atro City, pun title aside, plunges the listener headfirst into a death race while Darkest Blue is the rooftop anthem to lift a fist to as the city burns.
Most impressively, the album manages to draw in aspects from their entire output to date, with the heaviness of their Fake Sound of Progress debut frequently combined with the expansive ambition of second effort Start Something and the crowd-pleasing singalong refrains of third LP Liberation Transmission. The cocktail doesn't always go down smoothly - Streets of Nowhere is a ready-made single but its Albert Hammond guitar lines, jaunty drums and 'la-la-la' refrain would have been unimaginable in the Fake Sound of Progress era, and that's no bad thing. Similarly, For He's A Jolly Good Felon reminds bizarrely of Dexy's Midnight Runners and... shudder... Hard-Fi. Thankfully, it segues into a pulsing Skinny Puppy-ish outro that could alienate the young faithful but in conjuring the towering neon smoke towers of Blade Runner, is one of the most thrilling things they've ever done.
Richardson's apocalyptic segues are immensely evocative and reach their zenith in closing track The Light That Burns Twice As Bright. At an under-organised playback for the album, Watkins told a throng of assembled fans of his excitement at playing the song live and his anticipation is understandable - it's dark, magnificent, and the closest Lostprophets have come to mirroring the monolithic power of Biffy Clyro's Puzzle. As an eerie, emotive and layered epic, it's a fine snapshot of the album as a whole. They've honed their craft and while Watkins' self-pity might grate for some, or the industrial influences surprise fans, both exemplify the soul-bearing 'death or glory' tone of the record.
It's an album that can't be fully comprehended on one listen alone, but for a band who could have collapsed, and given it's self-produced, The Betrayed is a remarkably confident and unashamedly schizophrenic record. If these are the results of a trip back home, then Wales is clearly where they belong.
8/10
Lewis Bazley