dEUS - Vantage Point (Universal)
3/5
By: Michael Cragg
Betty Goes Green, Girls In Hawaii, Creature With The Atom Brain and dEUS are all linked by what? They all hail form that musical hotbed Belgium of course. However, dEUS are almost certainly the only band from that lineage to have received praise from both R.E.M and Radiohead and draw guest vocals from Elbow's Guy Garvey and The Knife on this, their fifth studio album.
It's probably no coincidence that a number of the ten songs on Vantage Point recall the work of their illustrious fans, with 'Oh Your God' recalling Michael Stipe's stutter rap delivery and 'Eternal Woman's soft acoustics shadowing The Bends-era Radiohead. Elsewhere, as on the rumbling 'Favourite Game', the band try out different textures but seem slightly lost amid the experimentation.
As the album develops, however, the tunes come more easily, specifically on the brilliant 'The Architect' and the Guy Garvey assisted 'The Vanishing of Maria Schneider' on which singer Tom Barman and Garvey's vocals compliment each other to haunting effect.
Vantage Point may not quite reach the heights of their late nineties peak, but it does reflect a band trying to find a new sound and though some of the songs sound like a bit of a struggle, it's a struggle worth persevering with.
Artists in this article: dEUS
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