Review:
'Narayan'
'A King Declares Strength'
- Label: 'Narayan Music'
- Genre: 'Rock'
- Release Date: '2008'
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Our Rating:
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First of all, if you're considering buying this "A King Declares Strength", stop reading. Close your browser, read no more about Narayan and go and get the album. Once you've listened to it, then, and only then, should you read Narayan's press and this review. Although rendering this review almost completely pointless before the end of the first paragraph, there is some reasoning behind this. I find that talking about a band's influences is always a double-edged sword: some people like to know a little about what they are about to hear, like being given a list of monuments and points of interest to keep an eye out for on a road-trip. The danger of this is that talking about Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails and U2 can also build up the forthcoming musical experience a little too much, leaving the listener open to disappointment. The above bands are all cited by Narayan as influences, as well as Depeche Mode, Prodigy and New Order. This is pretty distinguished company, it must be said. And there's nothing wrong with having favourite bands, and there's nothing wrong with wanting to be as important as these huge bands; they were all successful for a reason, right? But a new, relatively unknown band is going to have to be pretty special to not pale in comparison when mentioned in the same breath as these aforementioned giants. Unfortunately, compared to this roll call of the great and the noisy of 90s alternative rock, Narayan don't fare too well. However, this isn't so much a criticism of their music so much as a warning to maybe next time curb their publicist's enthusiasm.
Putting the CD on, the first checkpoint comes along pretty quickly: 'Interrogator' sounds like Nine Inch Nails-lite, albeit with a pop chorus. It feels a little derivative, and you certainly don't get the glitchy, 'this-is-what-hell-might-sound-like' feeling that I get when I listen to Nine Inch Nails. It's got the electronic beats, the reverb vocals and the guitars on overdrive, but it plays like Trent Reznor's cleaned-up brother, lacking any sort of edge that would give the listener the jolt required to really sit up and listen. That being said, it's not a bad slice of stadium rock and it's not uncomfortable to listen to, something I do experience occasionally with Nine Inch Nails.
'Metastasis (From The Creator Of Swans)', despite a title bordering on the Sufjan Stevens scale of clunkiness, is a nice change in mood though and the best track on the album. Displaying a commendable restraint by not throwing the guitars straight in, unlike the majority of the album's tracks, Narayan instead choose to keep it a little more downtempo. Hypnotic keyboards, electronic blips and swirling vocals slowly (well, relatively speaking) build up until pounding drums enter with a crash. The guitars are still there, but intelligently, they're kept low in the mix, contributing to the almost ambient feel of the track rather than overpowering the song.
'Third November' also starts off promisingly: clean guitar arpeggios slide in, but too soon they're swamped by more guitars on overdrive. The arpeggios come back, but most of the time, they're so far down in the mix that they're almost inaudible. There is some attempt at variety, with synth washes rising up through the chorus, and as a radio-friendly tune to get those mopey 15 year-olds moshing their unkempt hair, it succeeds. In fact, 'One More Empty Moment' sounds like it just lifted the synths and piano line straight from Linkin Park's 'Meteora' album, a blue-print for stadium-friendly, earnest melodic-metal if ever there were one. You can't really fault the effort that obviously went into the album though; as mentioned above, variation does happen occasionally. 'Caught Up In A Casualty' gets going with an almost soulful, arpeggiated riff from the acoustic guitar. Once again though, this is cruelly cut short. It's almost as if the group is afraid of playing anything that deviates too much from the accepted melodic-metal template, lest their intended audience switch off because there aren't enough crunchy, feedback-ridden guitars in the mix. It's a shame, because these little creative snippets hint at something more than what is on offer. '20001789' and 'White Picket Trenches' do offer a slight change of pace though: 'White Picket Trenches' is a pretty hearty slab of grungy rock 'n' roll, and '20001789' is an acoustic number that is very reminiscent of 'Wonderwall'-era Oasis, complete with heartfelt, 'everything'll be alright' vocals. Instrumentally, it's simplicity itself: a couple of guitars and a voice, but sandwiched between tracks that sink under lead-weight guitars and modulated voices, it's unusual enough to stick out.
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It's hard to rate this album really: the music isn't bad. The songs aren't horrendous to listen to. They can obviously play their instruments, and they're competent songwriters. But for a group that cites Radiohad, a band known for their experimental approach to album releases, Prodigy, an aggressive big-beat group who are no strangers to controversy, and Trent Reznor, a guy who generally produces 'unconventional' music, Narayan's brand of earnest industrial rock just isn't particularly exciting. It all feels a little dated really, as if Narayan have turned up for the 'nu-metal' party about four or five years too late. There are moments of creativity though, and certain songs are more than worth downloading ('Metastasis...' in particular). It's just that with all the bands already mentioned swimming around in my brain, it can't help but make unfavourable comparisons.
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author: Hamish Davey Wright
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READERS COMMENTS
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This album is fantastic! In my opinion, the best song is "Caught In A Casualty," which has lots of color, a great hook, and more meter changes than most bands have on and entire album. For a 3 min pop song, that's pretty impressive. And Mr. Hamish really considers this band Nu-Metal (i.e. Limp Bizkit, Korn, P.O.D.) or straight industrial? Wow. He truly needs to do more listening and less talking. These guys sound nothing like that and the album is much more than that. Check it out yourself.
------------- Author: Abby
19 May 2008
This album is fantastic! In my opinion, the best song is "Caught In A Casualty," which has lots of color, a great hook, and more meter changes than most bands have on and entire album. For a 3 min pop song, that's pretty impressive. And Mr. Hamish really considers this band Nu-Metal (i.e. Limp Bizkit, Korn, P.O.D.) or straight industrial? Wow. He truly needs to do more listening and less talking. These guys sound nothing like that and the album is much more than that. Check it out yourself.
------------- Author: Abby
19 May 2008
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