Spector
Enjoy It While It Lasts

The story is well-known by now: NME discovers a new talent and hypes them endlessly. This time it's the turn of Spector led by Mr. Fred MacPherson, a guy who never shies away from publicly sharing his thoughts, now presenting his third musical creation, after his previous two ventures reached their end without significant media attention. Spector is a quintet active since 2011 and debuted in August 2012 with "Enjoy While It Lasts"; an album that doesn't aim to change the world but to offer the listener 40 minutes of good music. Objective achieved, clearly.   The ingredients are more or less the usual for habitués of the new sensations proposed by NME: indie rock made to a template, enthralling guitar riffs, strong post-punk influences, and so on. But the merit of Spector is that they manage to be much more original compared to the masses when doing this stuff. Take, for example, a song like "Twenty Nothing" and pay attention to the chorus: I bet you all expected a more melodic refrain closure, surely different from that little chorus that goes "Twenty-Nothing!" which comes like a bolt from the blue, almost catching the listener off guard.   Nevertheless, the album doesn't lack more radio-friendly and engaging episodes, like "Friday Night, Don't Ever Let It End" or "Grey Shirt & Tie", although the real gems of "Enjoy While It Lasts" are quite different. For instance, the opening track "True Love (For Now)", which features sudden changes in rhythm that make the listener feel as if aboard a Ferrari single-seater racing through a circuit full of bends, straights, more bends, and more straights. The magnificent "Celestine" is without a doubt the highest point of the album, boasting a killer introductory riff and intense verses leading the song to an explosive chorus to sing along to after just half an earful (I also recommend watching the video, which presents genuine flashes of genius, with self-parody and quotes of Anthony Kiedis). Also noteworthy is the excellent work done on the lyrics (always rich in quotes from 'social networks'), thanks to the keen prowess of Fred MacPherson, skilled at never being clichéd, as evidenced by listening to great tracks like "Chevy Thunder" and "Upset Boulevard" (according to MacPherson, his best lyrics).   The concluding "Never Fade Away" feels almost like a farewell to the next album, a crescendo ballad that closes in the most appropriate way a great debut album. Not one of those that will make music history, mind you, but one of those albums where, in 20 years, when talking about Spector headlining at Glastonbury, it will be said that this was the work where it all began.     RATING: 8 (out of 10)