There was a time, not so long ago, that wherever you turned, every other band was a bunch of skinny white boys in jeans and t-shirts toting guitars and churning out music they referred to as ‘indie’. The meaning of ‘indie’ had changed: these kids – the likes of Razorlight and Hard Fi and The Klaxons et al – weren’t on independent labels, weren’t self-releasing their albums on zero budget. These were terrible, dark days, and while it’s debatable how much things have actually improved since then, at least with the ever-increasing fragmentation of culture which has seen the mainstream and all alternatives grow increasingly distant from one another, and the range of alternatives expanding exponentially, the deluge of limp indie slop has been diluted by more interesting options.
‘Platt Fields’ goes for the anthemic chorus, coming on a bit like latter day Manic Street Preachers, or, Franco’s preferred touchstone, Kings of Leon a trick that’s repeated on ‘Last Man Standing’ and ‘Monsters + Ghosts’ (which is arguably the album’s strongest track) . For the most part, though, it’s generic indie rock with a tendency to conflate the use of an acoustic guitar with emotional depth.
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I’m not suggesting their sociopolitcal leanings (evidenced on ‘American Dream’, ‘Musketeers’ and ‘Friends’) aren’t sincere or heartfelt, but rather that they’re representative of Facebook ‘likes’ showing remembrance of the fallen and indicative of a consensus version of patriotism that’s lacking any real engagement or discourse.
Franco and the Dreadnought Online
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