Two years ago Enter Shikari were everywhere all of a sudden. Seemingly out of nowhere this St. Albans quartet dropped a splinterbomb called “Take To The Skies” which was basically a trance/post-hardcore mashup. Equally all over the place were the songs on the album which seemed to be written by a bunch of ADD kids who seemed unable to stay with one idea for longer than 10 seconds.
They’re back now with “Common Dreads”, an album that shows some growth but hardly enough. Their sound is even more all over the place with vocalist Rou Reynolds going from singing to screaming to doing his best Mike Skinner impersonation in less than 30 seconds. All that comes out though are cliché-riddled lyrics that try and stick it to the man like in “Fanfare For The Conscious Man”.
Occasionally something actually works and when it does, things sound pretty good. Like in “Wall” where they slow things down long enough to show they can actually write a song before going off again in the chorus with screams that are completely uncalled for. Personally I think they’d better focus on making moody electronic music rather than letting the bleeps clash with loud guitars, which in the end only sounds extremely childish. Then again, I don’t belong to the generation that has to pop a couple of Ritalins a day to stay calm. So maybe I’m just too old for this!
They’re undoubtedly the best in the genre though. But that’s only because they’re pretty much the only band crazy enough to make this kind of music.
Score: 5.5 out of 10
http://www.warnerbrosrecords.co.uk
http://www.entershikari.com
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