We knew they had it in them. From the first EP’s that effortlessly blended Stone Roses beats with Led Zep bluster and the live shows that left all that witnessed them slack jawed and breathless there was always something a little bit special about this band. As good as the debut album was, it was also flawed by it’s own ambition, collapsing in on itself under the weight of it’s own expectations. So we carried on listening to ‘The People’ and ‘Take the Long Road and Walk It’ knowing there must be more to come.
The signs were good when we heard they were recording in America with a big name producer in Brendan O’Brien (Pearl Jam / Soundgarden). America is their spiritual home, away from the narrow minded British music press worrying about the width of your trousers and whether you’d fit into whatever movement they’d decided to create this week. In ‘Welcome to the North’, The Music have created that most unfashionable of things, a great rock record. It’s not arch, witty, tongue in cheek, shambolic or louche. It doesn’t wear a catsuit, do comedy raps, indulge itself in destructive drug habits, worry about what part of London it comes from or ‘keep it real man’. It does ‘rock’ however, really fuckin’ hard and it understands the funk in that ham fisted way that northern indie bands seem to be so good at.
The influences are obvious and of great pedigree. You will hear Led Zeppelin in the huge riffs, you will hear The Stone Roses in the shuffling beats, Janes Addiction in the stoned delivery and even U2 at their stadium levelling pinnacle. This, and I really don’t wish to over egg the proverbial pudding here, is one of the best rock albums to appear from these shores in the last decade.
So let’s talk songs. ‘Welcome to the North’, released earlier this year as a download only single, is swirling, psychedelically tinged epic. Containing far too much to digest in one listen, it showcases Robert Harvey’s vocals to dazzling effect. Wandering the wasteland between Robert Plant and Perry Farrell he soars and swoops, barks and wails to a back drop of jangling guitars and white boy funky drumming. If Harvey is the star he is nothing without his formidable band. On ‘Freedom Fighters’, first single proper, it is the bands turn to take centre stage. With a killer riff courtesy of Adam Nutter, this is the most focused and commercial sounding single they’ve produced yet.
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‘Bleed from Within’ drills along on military drums and anthemic chorus, ‘Breakin’ could have come straight off of Janes Addictions ‘Strays’ with Harveys call and response vocals before breaking down into a dancefloor bothering middle section of drums and bongo’s. ‘Cessation’ hurtles along at a 100mph before ‘Fight the Feeling’ slows things down with a haunting vocal that is the epitome of desolate.
‘Guide’ is the real surprise package with clanking drums and understated guitar line smouldering behind the most restrained vocal from Harvey yet (although all things are relative). ‘I Need Love’ is a straight forward rocker that could have been lifted off the debut album before ‘One Way In, No Way Out’ revels in a huge stoner riff and stop start drumming.
Only ‘Into the Night’ and closer ‘Open Your Mind’ blot the copy book. The former sails far too close to power ballad territory for this writers comfort and the latter brings to mind U2 at their most irritatingly bombastic and overblown but that’s what the skip button’s for I guess. It is also worth mentioning that lyrically this album is no great shakes (just read those song titles again) dealing in generalisations and occasionally empty sloganeering but it’s not really the point. This isn’t a band to weep along to in your bedsit, this is all about the rock!
The overall effect is to move The Music into the premier league with style. Filling the void left by the break up of Janes Addiction and creating the album that the Stone Roses ‘Second Coming’ so desperately wanted to be, ‘Welcome to the North’ is one of the finest albums released this or any other year. A fulfilment of early promise, these four unlikely rock stars from Leeds have delivered and then some.
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