The Futureheads - 'The Futureheads' (679)
4/5
By: Toby L
F**K ME! Just when will we stop the sycophantic blessing of our nation's Stop(-Start) Idols: the ever-thickening flurry of British bands so bloody exciting that our colostomy bags are close to exploding...? Well. Probably when they fail to keep presenting themselves.
So, again, we have another bloody brilliant debut-LP in '04. (That'll be about the 287th then?). The Futureheads' has been a long-time due, though, hasn't it?
A four-piece, Sunderland teenage/early-twenty bastard son of Gang Of Four and a barbershop quartet, the multiple harmonies, jerky rhythms, simplistic social-awareness themes and resultant slew of mini pop-furores form the most infectious companion to dancing like a tosser on an indie-dancefloor this summer - official.
'The Futureheads' is a spasmodic, jittering series of infectious convulsions from the get-go. 'Le Garage' is both harmonic and fierce, 'Robot' grappling and with a freak-out chorus that we didn't see coming, 'A To B', a former download-only single, is inane in its repetition (not that we mind when the parts are this desirable), and 'Decent Days And Nights' is a snappy riff-racket that seems somehow both random yet more cautiously, intricately designed than a submarine.
Every one of the painfully short, fourteen tracks is crucial - they follow one another more or less instantly, and, save for a solely vocal-guided 'Danger Of The Water', are classic, anthemic shoulder-boppers in the making. So assured and melodic in its delivery, 'Alms' could be the best thing we've ever heard, while 'Carnival Kids' is frustrated punk at its most frivolous. Add the truly infectious definer - 'First Day' - the obligatory shout-out-loud swearer - 'Stupid And Shallow' (key-line: 'You eat shit 'cos you're stupid and shallow/But I like it when you're stupid and shallow') - and the menacing, monstrously epic bow-out - 'Manray' - and we're beyond smitten, grinning mindlessly like we've just had our brains devoured by wild monkeys.
A colossal, frustratingly fun record, 'The Futureheads' is stupidly trendy, ridiculous and manic in its delivery: all at once. We want more.
Artists in this article: The Futureheads
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