Archive
Noise

THE REVIEW

I have always wondered why most of our local music magazines do not pay attention to Archive. Their previous album, «You All Look the Same To Me», was indeed in many situations a plagiarism of Pink Floyd, but it was decidedly well-made, produced, and emotional (especially the epic "AGAIN"). I am therefore surprised to find the new album in the store, with a great cover and a provocative "NOISE" as the title. A turn towards noisier sound territories?

After paying a good deal of money for it, I rush home and impatiently start listening to it. "Noise" starts, a track with an upbeat rhythm but annoyingly long and repetitive. Yes, the guitars sound good, there's a nice vintage organ, the usual space effects and bla bla bla, but there's not the slightest trace of Noise. I look at the tracklist and find that track no. 2 on the album is called "Fuck You", wow here there will be an outburst of anger with distorted guitars! Not at all. I find myself listening to a very trivial nursery rhyme composed of insults and declarations of hate in rhyme addressed towards a real or fictional enemy. To liven up the nursery rhyme, the ingenious author thought to alternate it with a measured riff of guitar that seems to be taken directly from Marilyn Manson's version of "Sweet Dreams."

The violins placed at the end certainly do not help to save the day. At this point, I become quite impatient, and I realize that the album is a succession of sappy, trivial, repetitive, and rather self-celebratory songs. There is not a single song worth saving. It is not enough to insert an electronic base here and there, some string instruments, or some Floyd-like effects when there are no songs. The Cooper Temple Clause are much better in the same genre. It is a pity that the Italian media do not talk about Archive (apart from GQ, of course, which will recommend it to you). I would have saved 17 euros…