To Lose A Synthesiser

Klaxons are great aren't they? Their debut in 2007 was mindblowing when it arrived; fully formed with 80s synth sensibilia and mythological wonderment. The problem is that, since then, every Pete Doherty aping chump has gone and bought themselves a keyboard and gone 'edgy and psychedelic'. Take the Mystery Jets' second album; a complete departure from their debut effort, deciding to follow some bizarre Duran Duran framework. Moving on to Kaiser Chiefs. I'm fully aware they were always shite and always had a keyboard, but their latest effort is embarrassing to the point of tears of laughter. The Offspring even tried it once with Splinter. The point I'm making is that bands are getting desperate to stay relevant and are beginning to be found out. Don't get me wrong, I like a filthy synthesiser as much as the next Hadouken! fan. But there are appropriate contexts.

The View's latest offering, cleverly and oh so wittily titled Which Bitch, is the band's attempt at sentimentality, clearly on the back of their once listenable track 'Face for the Radio'. The View are a band who made a quick buck off of the popularity of The Libertines' rugged minimalistic production and high energy. Devoid of this and they are merely a bunch of pot head teens who are inaudible and unintelligible. The roughness of the delivery was what masked The View's inability to play instruments and sing. Whoever is responsible for adding slick production values, including synthesised mood rythms (okay, hardly any, but I had to link this article somehow) and turning up the reverb on the vocals really does owe The View a career. Their obvious flaws are magnified and the album ends up slow, without purpose and worst of all, boring.

Boring is not a description usually associated with Franz Ferdinand, with all of the riffs that those boys have conjured from their impossible funky-feet-powered guitars (oh come on, there has to be a reason for all of that unnecessary Michael Flatley-esque dancing). Unfortunately, they've spent far too long thinking about how to squeeze another keyboard solo into this album and just completely disregarded the notion of writing a song. 'Ulysses' kicks the album off in fine fashion, the perfect funk tune that you could imagine being played at the end of a 70s-based 'Back to the Future': "Hey Stevie! It's your cousin Billy Wonder...you know that new sound you were looking for....?". From this point though, it's all much the same Franz, but with a lot of synth that after a while just becomes white noise, forcing you to listen to the lyrics, which in turn is the worst thing that you can do with a Franz Ferdinand album. The lyrics of "Oh you girls will never know, oh no you girls will never know" and "You're what she came for whoa" are simply a continuation of "Do You Want To?", a track so repetitive that it makes Alphabeat look like Crystal Castles. On to the magnum opus of the album, well according to the band, and according to the hefty run time, deep into 7 minutes, "Lucid Dreams". This track typifies the problem with this album. An early release of it was made free and was absolutely awesome, a perfect balance of groove and lyrics; so danceable, so likable. Now the album version. It starts in the middle, and cuts to a different set of lyrics; lyrics not as good as the original. There is no hint of structure to this song, there is no stability to make it danceable. Then, as it seems as though the song has been ruined far enough, a barrage of dirty synths hit you from all angles, a definite head-fuck that the band must have felt was visionary when they'd finished it. The truth is, it leaves you with the same sense as the album does: "Well, that was pointless".

The final album review for the time being is the White Lies debut, To Lose a Life. When "Death" was first released, you could tell this was a pretty special band. They encompass all of the things that The Killers did before they became painfully American and painfully shit, by which I mean a powerful voice, uplifting choruses and synths used in perfect harmony to the flow of the music. There's not much more I'd want to say about the album than that really, because it really is a triumph. However, I will note that the structure for their songs may have to be worked on for the next album. You can get away with starting quietly and building it up to a powerful crescendo on every track once, but twice is pushing your luck, as Hope of the States discovered to their peril.

I miss Hope of the States. They probably should have got a keyboardist in.