InMe - 'Overgrown Eden' (Music For Nations)
3/5
By: Toby L
Let's get this clarified from the outset - InMe are indeed a ferocious, often unstoppable force of metallic-rock tinged emotiveness that serves to satisfy the disaffected, hormonal morbidity of general, pubescent, baggy jean-wearers the UK, and potentially, a few add-on continents, over. 'Original', then - goodness, no. Yet if the aim is to take a thriving, predominantly-US genre and inject new, youthful angst into the predicament, then this UK trio has undertaken its primary ploy and succeeded, heads down and riffs growling.
MTV2-favourite 'UnderDose' opens the package, and effectively provides the consensus for the rest of the album: a thirst-invigorating intro, moderately all-over-the-place verse-sections, a slow-then-charge-up, guitar-chugging bridge, and the all-important melodically-hovering chorus. And then back to the previous, with maybe a moody middle-eight for good measure in between. Musically, it's accomplished alright, and there's little doubting the impact of such infectious dollops of sound as 'Crushed Like Fruit' or outro 'Mosaic'... Though...
The purists will have you believe that singer/guitarist Dave McPherson is the spokesperson for a generation, but such outlooks as 'It's all over now/You've killed me' amidst a flailing 'FireFly' hardly account for a constructive, insightful nor uplifting ride. OK, OK - Cobain was hardly a member of The Polyphonic Spree, but, as a reference-point, Nirvana never offered such a fervent display of melodrama as demonstrated in 'Overground Eden'; in hindsight, our Kurt depicted his pain and anguish with a fleetingly broad, touching perspective, typically considerate of more then one viewpoint. Tragically, the direction of McPherson's is all too commonly plain and single-minded, focussing on selfish introspection over solution-hunting, in a husky drawl that clashes Vedder with Gavin Rossdale, admittedly, quite triumphantly.
Contextually, what with their teenage standing-point, you'd have to be brutally naοve to swerve past the sheer promise (in a least patronising sense as possible) and miss what the potential here could point towards... So, the facts again: it is a debut-album (thus these are seriously early days); there is a clinical production-polish that may be best eradicated in parts so to fully emphasise some of the instrumental-variation and band-cohesion; and on offer are enough airplay-friendly compositions to lock in youngsters and inspire a new-born thirst into British angst-rock.
Therefore, 'til we next receive a taste of the threesome's admirably ambitious dynamic, please willingly grant 'Overgrown Eden' a hearing or five-hundred with an open heart - but let's predict a superior follow-up.
Artists in this article: InMe
Your Feedback
Login to post your comment