REVIEW: Alert New London’s “Youth”
Coldplay has been getting a lot of attention for their attempts at being Radiohead-lite, but without all of the things that fans and critics perceive as great. Coldplay are kind of boring, and yet they have become an example of how to play decent pop while remaining plain and white bread. Alert New London are a pretty decent indie pop & rock band who have the balls because they’re good at what they do, they write and perform some nice music, and to me much more bold. To me, that’s the recipe for music worth repeated listens, which they prove successfully on their album Youth (self-released).
There’s a nice youthfulness and zest to their music, and the 11 songs on their album is enough for me to come up with the conclusion that they’re ready to take their music to the masses. In songs like “Silverdrive”, “A Pulse Of Youth” and “Winners” they have the accessibility of a pop band ready for massive super stardom, but getting there might mean having to sacrifice what made them great in the first place. I hope if they go down a path towards fame, they will resist those urges as long as possible so they’ll be able to release good music like this in the process, to remain in their Youth, be it real or metaphorical. If they end up coming out with an album called Middle Age and eventually Grandfather’s Clock, we can all say we saw it coming but until then, admire Alert New London for what they are today, before the self-made adulation leads to rickets.
(Short version: decent indie pop/rock band who carry the spirit and vitality of a group on the verge of making it on their own terms, which I hope they’ll hold on to before they allow other outside forces to recreate them in someone else’s image.)
AC posted: 06 Nov at 12:41 pm
That was an incredibly poorly written article which said next to nothing about the music.
admin posted: 06 Nov at 1:23 pm
AC, are you familiar with the band or this album? If so, what were your views? If you didn’t like my opinion of it, what are yours? Please post your views so I can opt to say your opinion sucks too.
I don’t like to explain my reviews, but this is why I wrote a short version of the full review at the end. It’s my way of saying that I liked what I heard, I felt the band had an energy that comes from being a young group, and that association has nothing to do with the title of the album. My support for the music was shown by saying if the group does gain a bigger following through touring and a greater promotional push, I hope they will keep to that original spirit and not cater to the demands of people who try to reshape the group’s sound and passion for music. If the group chooses to evolve and try new things, let that be on their own merits and not because someone else told them to do it so they can become legends in 10 years.
The Coldplay comparison was not to say they sounded like them, but I remember when Coldplay first came to the surface and people praised them as being a more mainstream Radiohead. In fact, I’m saying that these guys have that same energy as Radiohead, but that isn’t saying “they sound like Radiohead.”
If anything this and all of my other reviews are saying “go and listen, maybe you’ll hear what I hear. If you don’t agree, listen for yourself and come up with your own conclusions.” My reviews are not meant to be absolute, the “be all, end all” as a final statement for anything. It’s my opinion, and I refuse to write the same favorable review over and over. If I did that, I can just use a virtual stamp which says “approved by Book.” No, I want you to read my reviews but you know what? You read my review, and disagreed. Because of this, I thank you for reading my review, it is appreciated.