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Rating: Reaching their fifth album in ten years, Archive seems to have completely lost the thread of the narrative initiated with their extraordinary debut album.
Ah! “Londinium,” what a record! It still gets played often today. A kind of deviant trip-hop. Then came “Take My Head” which veered towards more conventional pop-rock, yet not bland, "You All Look The Same To Me" echoed certain mid-seventies Pink Floyd, certainly derivative, but highly appreciated, “Noise”, alas, marked the first real misstep, getting tangled in completely soulless electronic layers.
With “Lights” comes the unmistakable sign that the creative source has dried up, and the band has produced a flat work marking a stagnation period that has now been going on for almost half a decade.
Let's be clear, it's not all to be discarded, but the sensation of apathetic emptiness that emerges after the eleven tracks is decidedly strong. The album revolves around the title track, a whopping over eighteen minutes placed at mid-tracklist which, despite the title, doesn’t emit even a glimmer. An endless track that perhaps, in intention, wanted to quote the more famous Again.
But as we know, results sometimes don’t align with intentions. Progressive trend in a contemporary key, crescendos, and grandeur typical of the genre, but I assure you that reaching the end is truly wearying and noting that my underwear starts to feel inadequate is more than just a feeling.
The rest of the program unfolds on more conventional songs in the scope of rock music, not disdaining to dip into unplugged territories (believe it or not!) as in the case of Fold and I Will Fade which hark back to melodies reminiscent of Coldplay. To stay in the realm of connections, one can sense something of the Radiohead 'Amnesiac' period in the concluding Taste Of Blood, or sudden changes of pace in territories already trodden by Primal Scream as in the case of Programmed.
The impression one gets is that of a disjointed work without a precise guiding line: a blow to the hoop and one to the cask. But this would be a venial sin. What more makes you regret the 20 euros spent, is the almost total lack of songs. Yes, exactly. I can’t recall a song that moved me.
As usual, the specialized magazines will ignore Archive as they have unfairly done all these years, but this time who can blame them?
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Sane (04:26)
Step by step, you're gonna make yourself feel better
Buy yeah buy, you're gonna make yourself feel better
Try yeah try, you're gonna make yourself feel ruthless
More yeah more, you're gonna make yourself feel sane
Can't stop looking and you can't stop taking it in
Head's full baby, but you can't stop taking it in
Reach yeah reach, 'til your arms can't reach any longer
More yeah more, you're gonna make yourself feel sane
Numb it again
Television's dead but you can't stop taking it in
Cover up your eyes, but you can't stop taking it in
Dead dead speech, yeah you can't stop taking it in
Speed it up baby, you gotta make yourself feel sane
Can't stop looking and you can't stop taking it in
Head's full baby, but you can't stop taking it in
Reach yeah reach, 'til your arms can't reach any longer
More yeah more, you're gonna make yourself feel sane
Numb it again
02 Sit Back Down (06:36)
They try hard to keep in time
They're not you
Sit back down
Sit back down
City streets are synchronized
Human forms
All petrified
So sit back down
Sit back down
Sit back down
Sit back down
Don't look up
Let them sleep
Don't disturb
The morbid feet
You're not the one
Don't you dare
Sit back down
Sit back down
Eyes are drained
Streets are pained
Stay below
Keep it slow
Sit back down
Sit back down
Just sit back down
Sit back down
Close your eyes you sleepers on the street
Walking dead
Walking dead
Sit back down, sit back down
Sit back down, sit back down
Walking dead
03 Veins (04:01)
It's easy to be persuaded
It's easy because I'm weak
If it were me I wouldn't make it
Now I've got you
Now I've got you
Frequently sedated
Beast in my veins
If it's free I'm gonna take it
Now I've got you
Now I've got you
Now I've got you
Now I've got you here
Goodbye my sad and lonely
Goodbye that love is sick for me
I hold you
I hold you
Thank God I've finally got you here
Now I hold you
Now I hold you
Nice to be acquainted
It's been easy for a while
Now you don't control it
I control you
I control you
Now I've got you
Now I've got you here
Goodbye my sad and lonely
Goodbye that love is sick for me
I hold you
I hold you
Goodbye my sad and lonely
Goodbye that love is sick for me
I love you
I love you
Thank god I've finally got you here
Now I've got you
Now I've got you here
04 System (04:01)
Completely done
Too much now I can't touch you
I'd drain my brain if only I could have you
The system is too much
It breaks me down and makes you suck
Fuck, now I mistrust you
The system makes me hurt you
One times, one times, one times, one
Discretely done
Obviously now I've become suited, diluted
Free from anything
Yes please, I'd love your love
So I can fuck it up
This system is too much
It breaks me down and makes you suck
Fuck, now I am twisted
This system makes me hurt you
One times, one times, one times, one
We cut and slice
It makes us feel so very nice
I'm simply demented
Uneasy and dented
I'd drain my brain if only I could have you
This system is too much
It breaks me down and makes you suck
Now I can't trust you
This system makes me hurt you
One times, one times, one times, one
05 Fold (04:37)
She folded neatly in my arms
I, I had everything
All that she wanted
Was to love me
Like no one else
But I repeated myself all over again
Why can't I just love
Why can't I just love
Love without hurting someone and causing pain
She only ever wanted to know me
But I'm too selfish for that
I made her doubt herself
But I repeated myself all over again
Why can't I just love
Why can't I just love
06 Lights (18:28)
It hurts to feel
It hurts to hear
It hurts to face it
It hurts to hide
It hurts to touch
It hurts to wake up
It hurts to remember
It hurts to hold on
Turn my head
The hurt's relentless
The hurt of emptiness
The hurt of wanting
The hurt of going on
The hurt of missing
The hurt is killing me
Turn my head
Off
Forever
Turn it off
Forever
Off forever
Turn it off forever
Ever blind
07 I Will Fade (03:08)
Find answers on the street
In cracks between my feet
But I can't see
Try so hard in vain
To wipe away the stain
Of everyday pain
And you never see me walking towards you
If you did I would surely fade
And you never feel me trying to hold you
If you did I would surely fade away
With the wounded in my way
There's so much more to say
But not today
I wonder if it will turn
Not fall apart and burn
When will I learn
And you never see me walking towards you
If you did I would surely fade
And you never feel me trying to hold you
If you did I would surely fade away
08 Headlights (03:32)
They're telling me it won't be long
The door is shut
The suits are on
Too bright to be day
To hurt anyway
Still there's no view
No green, no blue
The headlights above
They don't know love
You smile to please
I try to care
You break my heart
You break my heart
I love you here
I love you here
09 Programmed (05:45)
Flicking and twisting
There's a flash in the sky
Falling and drifting
There's a hole in my eye
I've not been feeling stable
It's too hard to try
I'm here and I'm waiting
To say goodbye
Switching and surfing
The transmission's black
I've lost everything
And I can't get it back
This corrupt programme
Has made me a slave
Now I feel remote
I'm interference on the T.V.
But nothing here's gonna free me
I'm screaming somebody help me
Try to break out and run for the land
Look out for yourself this place is a selfish man
Try to break out and run for the land
Look out for yourself this place is a selfish man
Try to break out
Try to break out
Try to break out
Try to break out
Try to break out
Try to break out
Try to break out
Try to break out
It's so cold
Like interference on a T.V.
It's so cold
Like interference on a T.V.
10 Black (02:52)
Please don't stop me
But go and leave me
You can't keep me inside
Please don't stop me
From being so strange
You can't help me
With your lies
Watch me self-destruct
Please don't stop me
Let me loose in the black
You can't touch me
Because I'm not coming back
Please don't watch me
Eyes burn inside
You can't help me
Or even try
Please go and smash me
Break my bones
You capture then leave me
Like a villain alone
Watch me self-destruct
See the light disappear now
Roll it over the black
I've got to disappear now
And I'm never coming back
Let it roll on over
Everything in sight
It's taken out my feelings
And it's fading out the light
Watch me self-destruct
Watch me self-destruct
Watch me self-destruct
Watch me self-destruct
11 Taste of Blood (04:35)
I get a taste of blood in my mouth when you're near
A feeling that's too painful to bear
I get a taste of blood in my mouth when you're near
A feeling that's too painful to bear
Straight to my head
I get a look of fear on my face with you here
A feeling that shivers down my skin
Try to resist, but it's just not finished with you yet
A hold too intense to forget
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